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Troops fire iraqi protesters twice 3 days { April 30 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58199-2003Apr30.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58199-2003Apr30.html
In 2nd Incident, U.S. Troops Fire on Iraqi Protesters
Reports Indicate 2 Killed, 14 Wounded
By Niko Price
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 30, 2003; 6:51 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- For the second time this week, U.S. soldiers fired on anti-American protesters Wednesday in the city of Fallujah; the mayor said two people were killed and 14 wounded. Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld became the first top Bush administration official to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster.
The shooting in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, occurred less than 48 hours after gunfire during a demonstration Monday night that hospital officials said killed 13 Iraqis.
About 1,000 people marched down the city's main street Wednesday to protest the earlier incident. The crowd stopped in front of a battalion headquarters of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division - a former office of Hussein's Baath Party - and soldiers opened fire after some protesters started throwing rocks and shoes.
Fallujah mayor Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani Medical said two people were killed and 14 wounded.
Maj. Michael Marti, an Airborne Division intelligence officer, said U.S. soldiers in a passing convoy fired on the crowd after rocks were thrown at them and a vehicle window was broken by what was believed to be automatic weapons fire. Capt. Jeff Wilbur, a civil affairs officer, said soldiers in the headquarters compound also opened fire.
Rumsfeld, operating out of a palace once used by Hussein, told Iraqis the United States is eager to return the country to their control.
"Iraq belongs to you," he said in a message taped for radio and television broadcast. "The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq."
Local officials in Fallujah - a conservative Sunni Muslim city and Baath Party stronghold - said they saw or heard no shooting from among the protesters.
The incident, coupled with the deaths Monday outside a school in Fallujah, are increasing tension as American forces try to keep the peace in Iraq and win the trust of its people.
U.S. officers met with Fallujah's mayor and local Muslims clerics in hopes of averting further violence. Several dozen demonstrators clustered angrily outside the town hall where the talks took place; "Get out, get out," some chanted.
Emerging from the meeting, the imam of the Grand Fallujah Mosque, Jamal Shaqir Mahmood, said the Americans insisted the U.S. troops were needed to provide security, "but the people of Fallujah told them we already have security."
In the incident Monday night, U.S. Central Command said paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne were shot at by about 25 armed civilians mixed within an estimated 200 protesters outside a compound troops were occupying. Demonstrators said no gunfire came from their ranks.
Rumsfeld, nearing the end of a trip to several Persian Gulf countries, flew to Baghdad after joining a British commander, Maj. Gen. Robin Brims, for a briefing in Basra on military operations in southern Iraq.
"A number of human beings have been liberated and they are out from under the heel of a vicious, brutal regime," Rumsfeld said. "I'm very pleased that the United States and the United Kingdom worked so well together."
In Baghdad, Rumsfeld said U.S. and British forces are committed to restoring order and basic services for Iraqis and helping them form a new government. He asked Iraqis to tell coalition solders about former Iraqi officials and foreign fighters who might still be in their neighborhoods.
© 2003 The Associated Press
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