Baghdad Civilians Held Gathering Accussing US Presence

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 18, 2003

Baghdad Civilians Held Gathering Accussing US Presence

Thousands of Baghdad civilians gathered at a mosque in the north of the city Friday noon, urging the coalition forces to leave Iraq.

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Thousands of Baghdad civilians gathered at a mosque in the north of the city Friday noon, urging the coalition forces to leave Iraq.

Demonstrations were also held in central Baghdad. Scores of demonstrators shouted their rejection of the US military presence in front of the Palestinian hotel Thursday.

Electricity has been partly restored in Baghdad, and a semblance of order is said to be returning to the city. On Thursday American forces interrupted a robbery in progress at a local bank and took away 4 million US dollars for safekeeping.

The AFP reports the American army announced Friday that the US marine corps are to move out of Baghdad and be replaced by US infantry. It is reported that about 30,000 forces from the US 4th Infantry Division are to enter Iraq from Kuwait in the following days in an attempt to eliminate the remaining resistance forces.

The newly arrived 4th Infantry Division fought a brief battle Thursday near Taji Airfield north of Baghdad. US troops say they killed and wounded part of the enemy force, destroyed some T-72 tanks and captured over 100 Iraqi fighters.

A second US Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Constellation, has left the Persian Gulf, leaving only the USS Nimitz battle group on station.

Meanwhile, the American army has distributed tens of thousands of leaflets, calling on Iraqi civilians to wait patiently as humanitarian assistance is arriving soon.

A Kuwaiti newspaper reports the southern city of Basra is facing a cholera crisis following weeks of serious water shortages. It says health sectors in Kuwait are preparing to send medicines and vaccines to Iraq.

Basra, a city of more than a million people, has been without clean water since the start of war.

The paper also reports that General Tommy Franks of US Central Command has ordered the setting up of a border headquarters in south Iraq. It quotes a briefing by US central command as saying the Pentagon is strengthening its forces on the border with Syria and is planning to send a group of Apache helicopters to oversee the border areas.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday that the US military's search for chemical and biological weapons in Iraq is unlikely to succeed.

US military teams have so far visited about four dozen suspected weapons of mass destruction sites in Iraq, but have yet to unearth any. Eliminating such weapons was the chief reason US president George W. Bush gave for going to war on Iraq.

US Special Forces have also reportedly captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, a half brother of Saddam Hussein. Barzan Hasan was a presidential adviser to Saddam and had extensive knowledge of the regime's inner workings. He is seen as a major catch because he may be able to provide information on Saddam's suspected weapons of mass destruction program.

As the war enters its 30th day, the coalition forces have suffered 156 dead. The US military says at least 2,320 Iraqi soldiers were killed in Baghdad, but Iraq has given no figures for its military losses.

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