A rchive Date
[ 17-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2003/03/31/60651-ap.html
Deadly shootings still in Iraq
Wed, April 16, 2003
(AP) - Deadly shooting in the northern Iraqi city Mosul underscored the difficulties still faced by Iraqis and U.S. troops seeking to restore order in the country, although the worst of the fighting might be over.
In Baghdad, U.S. troops raided the home of the mastermind of Iraq's biological-weapons laboratory Wednesday. Meanwhile, U.S. war commander Gen. Tommy Franks briefed President George W. Bush from one of Iraqi Saddam Hussein's former palaces in the four-star general's first visit to the Iraqi capital since the war began on March 20.
Hospital officials in Mosul said a total of 17 people were killed and 18 wounded during civil disturbances over two days. Many of the wounded said they were shot by U.S. troops but the circumstances were unclear.
The U.S. Central Command in Qatar confirmed its troops killed about seven Iraqis during a demonstration Tuesday but did not immediately comment on accusations U.S. marines shot civilians Wednesday.
Tuesday's violence in Mosul was among the worst involving U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians since the war began March 20. Iraqis accused Americans of opening fire on a crowd. Brig.-Gen. Vincent Brooks said U.S. forces guarding a government compound fired only after being shot at and when some rioters in the street tried to climb over a wall.
Wednesday's shooting apparently began with an attempt by police to drive looters away from the Central Bank, opposite the governor's office in the city of 700,000. The bank was in flames and old Iraqi coins lay scattered in the street nearby.
Wounded police officer Amar Ghanem Abdullah, 25, was among those ordered to stop the looting. He said the police shot in the air to disperse the crowd and then the Americans fired from roof of the governor's building.
A U.S. marine sergeant near the scene denied accusations troops fired into the crowd.
Tensions have been high in Mosul since the city fell without a fight last Friday and Kurdish and U.S. forces moved in. Tensions have escalated between the Arabs and the large Kurdish minority and looting was rampant until U.S. troops restored a degree of order.
The U.S. president, while careful not to declare the war over, urged the United Nations to lift economic sanctions against Iraq, saying the country has been liberated.
"Terrorists and tyrants have now been put on notice," Bush said in a speech in Missouri.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would soon call for a UN resolution lifting sanctions. That could be complicated by a requirement under previous resolutions that UN inspectors certify Iraq's banned weapons programs are dead.
The United States has not invited UN inspectors to return to Iraq. The UN Security Council has scheduled an April 22 briefing by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.
Another White House official, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, told an online audience he believes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been killed.
U.S. special forces in Baghdad raided the home of a microbiologist nicknamed "Dr. Germ" who ran Iraq's secret biological laboratory. About 40 marines burst into the Baghdad home of Rihab Taha, in charge of a laboratory that weaponized anthrax. Troops brought out boxes of documents and three men with their hands up.
Taha is the wife of Gen. Amer Mohammed Rashid, Iraq's former oil minister. The couple's whereabouts weren't immediately known.
U.S. administration officials said the desire to eliminate weapons of mass destruction was one key reason for the war, although none has yet been found.
"We're really just in the early stages of that" search, Brooks said in Qatar.
On the outskirts of Baghdad, a U.S. marine unit found what they described as a terrorist training camp where bomb-making apparently was taught. A U.S. marines spokesman, Cpl. John Hoellwarth, said the camp had about 20 permanent buildings and had been operated jointly by the Iraqi regime and the Palestine Liberation Front.
The camp included an obstacle course and what appeared to be a prison, to teach terrorists what to do if captured and interrogated, Hoellwarth said. Recruits also were apparently taught how to make bombs, he said; the marines found chemicals, beakers and pipes.
Despite the start of joint U.S.-Iraqi police patrols in Baghdad,throngs of looters ransacked food from a major Baghdad warehouse complex.
Also Wednesday, U.S. marines and Iraqi police caught about a dozen men trying to rob money from a burned out bank in the centre of the capital. Marines wrestled some of the men to the ground - including one who had a prosthetic leg - and found large stacks of Iraqi dinars on them.
Looting that has plagued Iraq's cities has been the cause of much of the people's anger, and many blame the Americans for encouraging it. Donny George, director for research at the Ministry of Antiquities, complained Americans let Iraq's museums be sacked.
Spurred by danger of increasing civil unrest in Iraq, several European leaders suggested Wednesday they may send troops to help stabilize the country. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also was reported making progress in sorting out his organization's postwar role.
The leaders of Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain - three backers of the U.S.-led war - spoke at a summit in Greece of the need to very quickly stabilize Iraq.
"There is a desperate need for stabilization forces in Iraq, here and now," said Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"We cannot wait for a UN resolution."
Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi returned to Baghdad as Iraqi exiles and Kurds worked to put together a meeting with local Iraqi leaders to consult on a future government, his Iraqi National Congress said.
Seven U.S. prisoners of war arrived for examinations at a military hospital in Germany, the last stop on their return home. They were rescued Sunday, after three weeks in Iraqi captivity.
The Pentagon's top budget officer said the war has cost at least $20 billion US and probably will consume at least that much in the next five months.
Australia plans to bring home most of the 2,000 troops it sent to join the invasion of Iraq by June, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
Australia contributed three navy ships, 150 Special Air Services troops, 14 F/A 18 Hornet fighter jets, troop-lift helicopters and transport and maritime-patrol planes to the coalition - 2,000 personnel in all.
The forces have suffered no casualties in the fighting.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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