ANGER RISES AFTER U.S. TROOPS KILL 13 IRAQIS
Edmund Blair, Reuters, 4/29/03

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead at least 13 Iraqis and 
wounded 75 when protesters marched on a school the soldiers have occupied 
and demanded they get out of Iraq, doctors and witnesses said Tuesday.

Residents said the troops shot at unarmed protesters but the U.S. military 
said its soldiers had merely retaliated after coming under fire when the 
crowd of about 200 people approached the school in Falluja, 30 miles west 
of Baghdad.

A company -- 100 or so soldiers -- from the 82nd Airborne Division were 
using the school as a barracks, officers said.

The shooting outraged local people who welcomed the removal of the hated 
Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces but now want the American forces to 
leave. Coming on top of other incidents, it may fuel anti-American 
sentiment elsewhere in Iraq.

"They are stealing our oil and they are slaughtering our people," said 
Shuker Abdullah Hamid, a cousin of one of the victims, venting the fury 
felt by many residents.

U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as angry mourners buried the dead 
Tuesday. The white walls of houses near the school were pock-marked by 
bullets, bullet-riddled and wrecked cars stood by the roadside and traces 
of blood marked the ground.

Soldiers inside the school, braced for trouble from Saddam loyalists on the 
dictator's birthday, seemed to have unleashed a hail of heavy fire on the 
crowd in the darkened street outside in response to what officers said was 
incoming rifle fire.

"Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs," hundreds of 
mourners chanted as they carried at least four simple wooden coffins 
shoulder-high through the town.

Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, director of Falluja general hospital, said at least 13 
people had been killed. His staff had treated 75 wounded, mostly hit by 
bullets or shrapnel…

A local Sunni Muslim cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud, said the protesters had 
asked the troops to leave the school so that lessons could resume there now 
the war is over.

"It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons," he said. 
"We are asking the Americans to leave Iraq."

Murhij Rashid, 52, pointed to a grave where gravediggers were throwing dry 
earth on top and kicking up dust. His 18-year-old son Hussein had just been 
buried.

"There was a demonstration but he did not have any weapon," he said.

Some residents said some of the dead may not have been taking part in the 
protest. Salah Abdullah Hamid said his 36-year-old cousin was an innocent 
bystander.

"He was not part of the protest. He did not have a weapon. He was killed by 
American bullets," he said.

Asked why the troops had fired, he replied: "We don't know. No one knows 
why...We want the Americans to leave our country completely. We are a 
Muslim country."

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