US Troops Shoot Into Iraqi Crowd

 

Thursday  June 19, 2003

Naseer Al-Nahr, Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 19 June 2003 — A US soldier fired into a crowd of Iraqi protesters outside the headquarters of the US-led administration in Baghdad yesterday, killing two people, amid signs of increasing Iraqi opposition to the US occupation.

Several hours later gunmen in a car shot dead one American soldier and wounded another as they guarded a petrol station. Mohammed Abbas, an Iraqi bystander, said: “We think they deserved it. We admire the bravery of those who attacked them.”

The shooting occurred when a US military convoy passed through a crowd led by up to 2,000 former Iraqi soldiers who were protesting at being sacked by the new US administration.

US military officials said a US soldier had fired in self-defense after the convoy was pelted with rocks. Two Iraqis were injured and later died.

“Both men who were evacuated died of their wounds,” Lt. Col. Richard Douglas said. The complex is the former palace of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The sacked Iraqi soldiers were disgruntled over losing their jobs when US administrator Paul Bremer dissolved Saddam’s armed forces last month.

“We were in a peaceful demonstration asking the US to give us our salaries,” Abdul Rahim Hassan, a former soldier, told Reuters. “We were not fighting them, but suddenly they started shooting at us.”

US Army Capt. Scott Nauman, whose men were guarding the compound, told CNN television that Iraqis on the other side of the street had been throwing rocks for nearly an hour before the shooting, but no one had been hurt until the convoy arrived.

“The personnel (Iraqis) on the other side of the street swarmed the convoy, shaking the vehicles, breaking out windows, throwing rocks at extremely close range to the personnel in that convoy. “(They) felt threatened ‘understandably’ as their vehicle was swarmed and windows broken out and they fired shots then directly into the crowd and injured two personnel...To me it appeared to be in self-defense.”

The captain said his men had fired warning shots over the crowd at the same time.

Asked if there had been shooting from the crowd, he replied: “No, not to my knowledge.”

Before the shooting the demonstrators had beaten passing United Nations and television vehicles with their shoes and assaulted a Reuters television crew and other reporters outside.

One of the protesters, Essam Mansur Hussein, a 49-year-old officer under the ousted regime, warned that they were now prepared to take up arms against the US troops occupying the city.

“Every day we come to protest peacefully, but it’s useless. In the coming days it will not be peaceful. They have to realize that if we have nothing to eat there will be Fedayeen (militia) operations every day.”

In southern Baghdad two US soldiers guarding a filling station were injured in an attack. An Iraqi policeman confirmed one soldier was dead, adding that the attackers had fled before US military vehicles and a helicopter arrived and removed the bodies.

Meanwhile, US forces in Iraq have captured Saddam Hussein’s presidential secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud, the most senior member of the former regime yet to be seized, US military officials said yesterday.

US Central Command said Mahmud, a distant cousin of Saddam and responsible for his security, was captured Monday “in Iraq,” but gave no details.

Mahmud’s official title was presidential secretary, but a British government dossier said he was responsible for Saddam’s personal security, as well as defense, security and intelligence issues.

— Additional input from Agencies

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