US Troops Open Fire on Iraq Protestors - Kill 10
by Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday April 15, 2003 at 06:56 PM

Sydney Morning Herald, Agence France Presse and Arab news sources all reporting 10 anti-US protestors shot dead by US troops in Mosul, Iraq. London Guardian says 12 dead, 60 wounded, but US troops "trying to restore order." Anti-US protests all over Iraq.

US TROOPS ACCUSED OF CARNAGE
Sydney Morning Herald - April 16 2003 (in Australia)

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.

But a US miltary spokesman said the troops had come under fire from at least two gunmen and fired back, but did not aim at the crowd.

"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.

One witness, Marwan Mohammed, 50, said: "We were at the market place near the government building, where Juburi was making a speech. He said everything would be restored, water, electricity, and that democracy was the Americans.

"As for the Americans, they were going through the crowd with their flag. They placed themselves between the civilians and the building. The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies."

A doctor, Said Altah, said: "Juburi said the people must co-operate with the United States. The crowd called him a liar, and tempers rose as he continued to talk. They threw objects at him, overturned his car, which exploded. The wounded said Juburi asked the Americans to fire."

Ayad Hassun said the trouble broke out after the crowd interrupted Mr Juburi's speech with cries of, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."

"You are with Saddam's fedayeen," retorted Mr Juburi, to which the crowd chanted that, "The only democracy is to make the Americans leave."

He said 20 US soldiers escorted Mr Juburi back into the building. "They climbed on top of the building and first fired at a building near the crowd, with the glass falling on the civilians. People started to throw stones, then the Americans fired at them."