ANGER RISES AFTER U.S. TROOPS KILL 13 IRAQIS
Edmund Blair, Reuters, 4/29/03
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead at least 13 Iraqis and
wounded 75 when protesters marched on a school the soldiers have occupied
and demanded they get out of Iraq, doctors and witnesses said Tuesday.
Residents said the troops shot at unarmed protesters but the U.S. military
said its soldiers had merely retaliated after coming under fire when the
crowd of about 200 people approached the school in Falluja, 30 miles west
of Baghdad.
A company -- 100 or so soldiers -- from the 82nd Airborne Division were
using the school as a barracks, officers said.
The shooting outraged local people who welcomed the removal of the hated
Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces but now want the American forces to
leave. Coming on top of other incidents, it may fuel anti-American
sentiment elsewhere in Iraq.
"They are stealing our oil and they are slaughtering our people," said
Shuker Abdullah Hamid, a cousin of one of the victims, venting the fury
felt by many residents.
U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as angry mourners buried the dead
Tuesday. The white walls of houses near the school were pock-marked by
bullets, bullet-riddled and wrecked cars stood by the roadside and traces
of blood marked the ground.
Soldiers inside the school, braced for trouble from Saddam loyalists on the
dictator's birthday, seemed to have unleashed a hail of heavy fire on the
crowd in the darkened street outside in response to what officers said was
incoming rifle fire.
"Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs," hundreds of
mourners chanted as they carried at least four simple wooden coffins
shoulder-high through the town.
Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, director of Falluja general hospital, said at least 13
people had been killed. His staff had treated 75 wounded, mostly hit by
bullets or shrapnel…
A local Sunni Muslim cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud, said the protesters had
asked the troops to leave the school so that lessons could resume there now
the war is over.
"It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons," he said.
"We are asking the Americans to leave Iraq."
Murhij Rashid, 52, pointed to a grave where gravediggers were throwing dry
earth on top and kicking up dust. His 18-year-old son Hussein had just been
buried.
"There was a demonstration but he did not have any weapon," he said.
Some residents said some of the dead may not have been taking part in the
protest. Salah Abdullah Hamid said his 36-year-old cousin was an innocent
bystander.
"He was not part of the protest. He did not have a weapon. He was killed by
American bullets," he said.
Asked why the troops had fired, he replied: "We don't know. No one knows
why...We want the Americans to leave our country completely. We are a
Muslim country."
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