FALLUJAH (Iraq), April 29: US troops shot dead 13 Iraqis including children at a pro-Saddam Hussein rally, witnesses said on Tuesday.
US commanders said the shooting was in self-defence, without confirming the death toll, while in Baghdad a top US general announced fresh troop deployments to enforce order amid the chaos.
The former governor of Basra handed himself to US-led forces, the 15th member of Saddam’s collapsed regime wanted by US forces to fall into coalition hands, following the arrest of a top weapons advisor.
Witnesses in the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, said that US troops had opened fire late on Monday on demonstrators marking Saddam’s birthday, killing 13 and wounding 45.
“The shooting broke out when 500 protesters carrying portraits of Saddam and Iraqi flags approached a school manned by US troops,” said resident Mohammed Hamid.
Another witness, who asked not to be identified, said six of those shot dead were children aged just seven or eight. They were buried on Tuesday in accordance with Islamic tradition.
The US troops were “not threatened by the demonstrators,” he added.
Lieutenant Yvonne Lukson at US Central Command said US forces “came upon a group of Iraqis that fired AK-47s at them and they returned fire.”
Another US officer, Major General Gene Renuart, said: “The reports we had were a small number of wounded, less than 10, and I have no reports of any killed.”
The shooting came amid highly volatile anti-US feeling in the country, nearly three weeks after US tanks rolled into central Baghdad to end Saddam’s 24-year grip on power.
The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reiterated allegations that Syria had aided Saddam’s regime, but denied that Washington was threatening Damascus.
“I think it’s a mischaracterization to say we threaten Syria. We are not in the business of threatening,” Mr Rumsfeld told reporters in Saudi Arabia, accusing Syria of sending fighters into Iraq and harbouring fugitive Iraqi officials.
The US campaign to gather intelligence from former regime leaders in the hope of uncovering Saddam’s alleged weapons programme meanwhile progressed with the surrender of a key weapons expert and the former mayor of Basra.
Amer Mohammad Rashid al-Ubaidi, a former oil minister and weapons advisor to Saddam, gave himself up to US-led coalition forces on Monday, US command said.
Rashid was number 47 on the list of most wanted figures of the regime and was married to Rihab Taba, known as “Dr Germ”, the head of Iraq’s alleged biological weapons programme, who is still being sought.
Rashid is the third key weapons specialist to fall into coalition hands, following the head of the body that liaised with UN arms inspectors, Gen Hossam Mohammad Amin, and presidential scientific advisor Amer al-Saadi.
All three are crucial to finding the elusive “smoking gun” — evidence to back up Washington’s claims that Iraq was developing banned weapons.
The United States used what the United Nations described as “unanswered questions” over alleged Iraqi weapons to justify launching its war against Iraq on March 20.
US officials hope that the more people on the wanted list who turn themselves in or are captured, the greater the chances of finding Saddam, whose whereabouts remain a mystery.
Former Basra governor Walid Hamid al-Tikriti, 44th on the “most wanted” list meanwhile surrendered to Free Iraqi Forces in Baghdad, the Iraqi National Congress said in London.
“He will be debriefed by our people before being handed over to the Americans,” spokesman Haidar Ahmed said. Tikriti is the 15th former official featuring on the list to either surrender or be captured.
A huge explosion shook the southeast of Baghdad and a massive plume of smoke was hanging in the city sky, but the precise location or cause of the blast were not immediately known.
Residents suggested it may have been a controlled explosion carried out by US forces demolishing a stockpile of captured Iraqi weapons but there was no confirmation from US soldiers in the area.
US administrators said they were beefing up military patrols to increase security in the capital, where residents have expressed frustration at the time being taken to fill the country’s political vaccuum.
Jay Garner, the retired US general in charge of the country, began talks with dozens of Iraqi officials after delegates at a political conference agreed on Monday to meet in a month to create an interim government.
With the immediate concern being law and order in Baghdad, top US general Glenn Webster said that another 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers will arrive in the next two weeks to reinforce the 12,000 already there to protect the city.
He said US troops would be making patrols of the capital, which continues to be plagued by sporadic violence and looting three weeks after Saddam was toppled.—AFP
FALLUJAH (Iraq), April 29: US troops shot dead 13 Iraqis including children at a pro-Saddam Hussein rally, witnesses said on Tuesday.
