Witnesses Say US Troops Fire on Iraqi Crowd

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Witnesses Say US Troops Fire on Iraqi Crowd

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At least 10 people were killed and scores wounded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday when US troops allegedly fired on a crowd angered by a speech by the new United States-backed governor, witnesses said.

The charges were denied by a US military spokesman in the city, who said troops had first come under fire from at least two gunmen and had fired back, without aiming at the crowd.

But the incident overshadowed the start of US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out the country's future leadership in the southern city of Nasiriyah, a Shi'ite Muslim bastion where 20,000 people marched through the city chanting "No, to America, no, to Saddam."

The firefight in Mosul broke out as the newly-appointed governor of the city was making a speech from the building housing his offices and which listeners deemed was too pro-US, witnesses said.

"There were protesters outside, 100 to 150, there was fire, we returned fire," a US military spokesman said, adding the initial shots came from a roof opposite the building, about 75 metres away.

But witnesses claimed US troops fired into the crowd after it became increasingly hostile towards the new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi. A doctor at the city hospital, Ayad al-Ramadhani, said: "There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead."

The process of finding a new Iraqi leadership after the fall of Saddam Hussein got under way in Nasiriyah, the first meeting of opposition groups since the start of the war, with US officials expected to discuss the process of forming an interim administration.

But the man tipped to become Iraq's next leader, Ahmad Chalabi, head of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, was not due to attend. Chalabi planned to send a representative.

Iraq's leading Shi'ite Muslim opposition group was also boycotting the talks, amid distrust over the US role and division over who should lead Iraq.

Dozens of representatives from Iraq's fractious mix of ethnic, tribal and opposition groups, including those formerly in exile, were said to be invited, although no official list was given.

Army Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice-director of operations of the Joint Staff, said in Washington on Monday that "I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over because the major Iraqi units on the ground cease to show coherence." But Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters not to expect a declaration of victory.

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