BAGHDAD, Oct 31: Violent clashes on Friday rocked areas near Baghdad amid fears that bloodshed could mark the six months since Washington declared on May 1 that major hostilities in Iraq had ended.

Medical sources and witnesses said several Iraqis, including a six-year-old boy and a policeman, were killed and 20 others wounded in incidents in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Gharib, which US forces also said wounded two of their men.

The violence involved a shootout during a protest triggered by the death of the boy a witness said was crushed by a US army tank searching for assailants who had hurled grenades at an American convoy.

The alleged incident infuriated a crowd of Iraqis who exchanged fire with US troops and local police.

In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, one resident was shot dead by police when an angry crowd stormed the town’s municipal building, demanding that the offices, which have been targeted by explosives attacks, be moved, civil defence officials said.

Several men fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at the building after the man was shot dead.

In Baqubah, a farmer was shot dead by US troops as he was watering his field, according to relatives who said they witnessed the incident, but did not know why the man was killed. The US military did not immediately confirm or deny the report.

In another violent incident, two Iraqi civilians were killed by a landmine on a road leading to a US base, according to a forensic expert at the hospital in Baqubah, 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.—AFP