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Us apology fails to quell shiite protest Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?vts=081420031250http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?vts=081420031250
U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq attack
U.S. apology fails to quell Shiite protest
TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 15 — Guerrillas firing grenades wounded two U.S. soldiers and three Iraqi civilians in central Iraq on Friday, while thousands of Shiite Muslims gathered for prayers at a flashpoint in a Baghdad suburb.
CHANTING “YES FOR ISLAM,” more than 3,000 worshippers flocked to a street in Sadr City, where U.S. forces shot dead one Iraqi dead and wounded four during a protest earlier in the week.
In the latest guerrilla attack in Sunni Muslim central Iraq, U.S. officers said two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a small military convoy near the restive town of Balad, north of Baghdad on Friday morning.
“The Iraqis were treated at the scene and released while the soldiers were evacuated to a field hospital and are in stable condition,” said Lieutenant Colonel William MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division. “We have not yet captured the attackers.”
The 4th Infantry Division is leading the hunt for ousted leader Saddam Hussein in the area around his hometown of Tikrit. U.S. troops have detained 14 Iraqis in the past 24 hours and seized surface-to-air missiles, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, MacDonald said.
U.S. forces are facing a guerrilla campaign in Sunni areas, a hotbed of Saddam support, which has killed 60 soldiers since May 1 alone.
SHIITE UNREST
There are also signs of surging resentment among Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, which generally welcomed Saddam’s overthrow in the U.S.-led invasion that began in March.
A roadside bomb killed a British soldier and wounded two on Thursday in the southern city of Basra after a weekend of unrest by the city’s Shiite population.
Shiites residents of Sadr City have rejected a U.S. apology for provoking last week’s protest and have vowed more violence unless American troops withdraw from the district.
The Shiites were expected to hold their weekly prayers near a communications tower at the center of the controversy.
On Wednesday thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of the impoverished district after a U.S. helicopter flew close to the banner of a religious school that was hanging from the tower.
Locals said the helicopter tore down the banner, while the U.S. Army said it may have been accidentally blown off.
Most Shiites in Iraq say they were oppressed by Saddam, a Sunni. But some powerful Shiite clerics have spoken out against the occupation, and anger is also brewing in mainly Shiite southern Iraq over chronic fuel and electricity shortages.
Riots erupted in Basra on Saturday and Sunday in protest at the shortages. A Nepalese security guard and two Iraqis were killed.
Thursday’s bombing was the first deadly guerrilla-style attack against British forces since the end of major hostilities in Iraq on May 1.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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