U.S. Soldiers Fire on Iraqi Protesters

According to a Reuters report via Al-Jazeera 10 people were killed and 70 wounded. The television station stated the group had finished up evening prayers at a mosque and were answering a call to protest the continued U.S. presence in Iraq. While U.S. Central Command at the time of this report denied knowledge of the incident, Al-Jazeera said the troops opened fire after someone in the crowd threw a stone at them.

According to an AP report the troops opened fire after being shot at. Col. Arnold Bray of the 82nd Airborne Division stated only 7 people were hit, while residents were quoted as saying 15 were dead. This report doesn't mention a mosque gathering and instead describes the gathering as one consisting of students aged 5 to 20. It goes on to say the troops were stationed in a schoolhouse which was allegedly fired upon by the protesters.

Bray commented ``Ask them which kind of schoolboys carry AK-47s.''

Apparently Col. Bray doesn't visit Baghdad or read Reuters.

In a Shi'ite slum of Baghdad, Iraqi boys get drunk, pop pills and then play with the most popular toy in town -- the AK-47 assault rifle.

"They start firing in the air and then they shoot at each other right in the middle of the market," said Saad Batal, as vendors sell cucumbers, fish, guns and bullets at a crowded street.

"The Americans have to stop this. These kids are creating problems every day. All you hear is shooting at night."

Since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraqis across Baghdad have been raiding military storehouses and looting everything from machineguns to night-vision binoculars.

The most recent report from Reuters is here. According to it Central Command in Qatar 'knows nothing', troops in Fallujah declined comments to Reuters, and senior officers in Baghdad 'had no news'.

Al-Jazeera and CNN television quoted U.S. troops saying they came under fire after asking the crowd to disperse and had to retaliate. Numerous local people said about 200 unarmed people had asked the Americans to leave the school so it could reopen.

"They opened fire on the protesters because they went out to demonstrate," Sunni Muslim cleric Kamal Shaker Mahmoud, who lives near the school, told Reuters.

"They are stealing our oil and they are slaughtering our people," Shuker Abdullah Hamid told Reuters as he helped bury a man he said was his cousin at a local cemetery.

The shooting in Falluja followed an attack on U.S. forces in the northern city of Mosul on Monday evening in which at least six Iraqi fighters were killed. At least 12 civilians were killed near Baghdad on Saturday when an Iraqi arms dump blew up, triggering protests about U.S. troops' handling of the weapons.