US troops open fire on Iraqi demonstrators, killing ten
United States troops opened fire on a crowd hostile to the new pro-American governor in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100, witnesses and doctors said. The shooting overshadowed the start of US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-Saddam Iraq. At Mosul hospital Dr Ayad al-Ramadhani said the American soldiers had fired into a crowd that was becoming increasingly hostile towards governor Mashaan al-Juburi as he was making a pro-US speech in the city. "There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead," Dr al-Ramadhani said as angry relatives of the dead and wounded voiced hatred of Americans and Westerners.
Sydney Morning Herald [Australia], 16 April 2003
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20,000 Iraqis join huge protest against US occupation
In Nassiriya thousands of Iraqis protested yesterday that they did not need American help now that Saddam Hussein has gone. "No to America, No to Saddam," chanted Iraqis from the Shia Muslim majority long oppressed by Saddam, who is from the rival Sunni sect. Arabic television networks said up to 20,000 people marched. Even as US-sponsored governance talks in Iraq began, skepticism ran deep among groups united by little more than joy at Saddam's fall and unease at getting too close to Washington. The main exiled Shi'ite group decided not to come at all. "We cannot be part of a process which is under an American general," said a spokesman for the Iran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, SCIRI.
Reuters [US], 15 April 2003
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Pentagon bans media from anti-US protests in Iraq
US forces yesterday tried to stop the media from covering a third day of anti-American protests by Iraqis outside a hotel housing a US operations base, according to a reporter at the scene. Hundreds of Iraqis gathered outside the Palestine Hotel to express rage at what they said was the US failure to restore order after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 metres from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel. "We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marines colonel who would not give his first name or title. The crowd later moved to the nearby square where a statue of Saddam was toppled last Wednesday, signalling the end of the regime. The Iraqis chanted: "No, no, USA."
The Age [Australia], 16 April 2003
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Courtesy of newsinsider.org
