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Firefight north of Baghdad, US troops kill several Iraqis

Grenade attack on British patrol

STAR DESK
US troops killed several Iraqis and captured 100 others in a brief firefight north of Baghdad and a British patrol near Basra in southern Iraq was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades, US military officials said in Qatar yesterday.
The northern Iraqi city of Mosul continued to be rocked by violence that witnesses said killed 15 people and wounded 28 in two days, with US forces insisting they were firing "in response to threats".
A riot broke out at a bank yesterday after thieves blew a hole in the vault and dropped children inside to bring out fistfuls of cash.
US troops defused the situation by arresting the thieves and removing the money for safekeeping.
The incident -- part of the lawlessness that has broken out in Baghdad with the fall of Saddam Hussein -- took place at a branch of the al-Rashid Bank. As word spread about the robbery under way, people gathered, demanding that the thieves give them the money. Many of the people had accounts at the bank.
Two men with Kalashnikov rifles shot over the heads of the crowd and
ran for a nearby bridge. As the crowd grew larger and more agitated, a US special operations patrol called in reinforcements, and an army platoon arrived. The patrol arrested a dozen men inside the building, several of them teenagers.
About 1,000 civilians surged around the 16 soldiers attempting to secure the bank building. At one point the soldiers cocked their rifles and charged at a group of men to get them to back away from their Bradley fighting vehicles.
The troops blew open the vault with C-4 explosives, finding about
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$4 million in $100 bills, sequentially numbered in Federal Reserve wrappers and stacked in bricks of $10,000 each. Soldiers put the money in burlap bags and took it away.
Elsewhere, US marines removed bags of money for safekeeping from another al-Rashid branch that has been hit repeatedly by looters since the Iraqi capital fell last week.
A crowd gathered outside the burned-out al-Shorga Branch of the al-Rashid Bank as marines loaded the bank notes into an armoured vehicle to be taken to a secure location.
Anti-US anger simmers
Just days ago, US troops were cheered and kissed as they destroyed the symbols of Saddam Hussein's regime. Today, after a week of chaos, it's a whole different story.
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 that the Americans let Iraq's museums be sacked. "This is what the Americans wanted," he said. "They wanted Iraq to lose its history."
After looters ran wild, American forces shot civilians, and the lack of basic services spread misery across the land, many Iraqis turned their anger away from Saddam Hussein and toward what they saw as their new oppressor: the United States of America.
"They are aggressors," wheezed Ali Ahmed, 17, lying in a hospital bed as a tube drained fluid from his lungs. "They
destroyed us. They put us in war and didn't let us sleep. They just raided Baghdad."
In the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, an anti-American cleric took over City Hall. Hundreds of his followers blocked US marines from entering Tuesday with a message that "there is more than just one leader in the region." The marines departed, opting against confrontation.
There have been daily demonstrations in Baghdad as well, many outside the Palestine Hotel, temporary home to hundreds of international journalists and US marines. Hundreds of people hold up banners demanding the restoration of electricity, water and phone service. Many also urge the Americans to leave town.
Other cities
In Tikrit, members of Saddam's clan attacked rivals from nearby villages, beating them with clubs in fights over food, an American military officer said. US marines intervened in two such clashes, he said.
In Kirkuk, the second largest city in the north, Arab families complained that they have been forced out of their homes by a group of Kurds claiming ownership in the largely Kurdish city. Iranian militants
The US military said yesterday it had been attacking fighters of the Iranian opposition Mujahideen i-Khalq in Iraq but hoped to arrange a ceasefire with them in the next few days.
"We know that there's a presence of the Mujahideen i-Khalq inside of Iraq and indeed we have been targeting them for some time," Brigadier General
Vincent Brooks told a briefing at Central Command headquarters in Qatar.
Suicide reports examined
Coalition military chiefs were yesterday looking at reports that the Iraqi information minister dubbed "Comical Ali" had committed suicide.
Newspaper reports in Iran surfaced two days ago saying Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who repeatedly claimed that Iraq was winning the war, had hanged himself.
Military sources treated the reports with caution, suggesting they could have been spread by the fleeing Iraqi propagandist to throw special forces' snatch squads off his tail.
Tommy Franks in Baghdad
US General Tommy Franks, who directed the war in Iraq, flew in to Baghdad airport, its runways still pockmarked with craters from US bombs, met with troops and military commanders and gave President George W Bush a progress report via videoconference from one of Saddam's abandoned palaces.
"I wanted to get our commanders together in Baghdad because that's been, of course, the centre of gravity for this regime while it stood. And as we all recognise it stands no longer," Franks told reporters.
Although relatively calm, there were incidents of violence and looting in Baghdad and a desperate shortage of electricity, water and medical care in the heavily bombed capital.
Franks said water and power were being restored and hospitals were going back to work after days of anarchy.