BAGHDAD, Oct 21: US soldiers on Tuesday fired shots in the air to disperse Iraqi government employees who were demonstrating against the use of sniffer dogs in searches at the entrance of the ministries where they work, witnesses said.

Oil ministry employee Zainab Assem said the protest outside a government compound in Baghdad started after a veiled woman refused to let a dog touch her bag, which contained a copy of the holy Quran.

“Amal Karim asked them not to let the dog touch her bag because there was a Quran inside,” Assem said.

A US soldier approached and hurled the holy book to the ground, she said. “Amal started shouting: ‘Can you let American soldiers desecrate our holy Quran?’ And the crowd broke out in rage.”

Another witness, Mohammad Jassem, said police shot into the air to disperse the employees who were heading to work in the compound, which houses the ministries of oil, trade and electricity.

The demonstrators demanded that US troops leave and be replaced by Iraqi police.

“We will demonstrate every morning until the soldiers leave the entrance to the ministry,” said Assem.

The use of dogs in searches has caused several incidents in Iraq.

In June, a crowd killed six British soldiers who were using dogs in searches in Amara, 365kms southeast of Baghdad.

“Even Saddam did not behave in this manner,” said Jassem, in reference to ousted president Saddam Hussein. “Their attitude is unacceptable,” he said.

Asked about the incident, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo told journalists: “We’ve got conflicting reports on that.”

But he said that what apparently started as a peaceful protest by about 40 people ended up with about 200 more demonstrators and involved some “pushing and shoving”.

Another United States spokesman said the use of dogs for security purposes had been discussed with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, who accepted the concept as long as dogs are not used to search people’s houses.

He also stressed that a number of other Arab countries used sniffer dogs to search for drugs or explosives. —AFP