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US troops mow down Saddam revellers

13 including six children killed, 75 injured during leader's birthday celebration

AFP, Fallujah
US troops shot dead 13 Iraqis, at least six of them children, during a protest to mark Saddam Hussein's birthday, witnesses said yesterday.
Witnesses in the town of Fallujah,
west of Baghdad, told AFP that US troops had opened fire late Monday on demonstrators celebrating Saddam's 66th birthday, killing 13 and wounding 75.
"The shooting broke out when 500 protestors carrying portraits of
Saddam and Iraqi flags approached a school manned by US troops," said Mohammed Hamid, a resident of the town, 50 kilometres west of the capital.
Another witness who asked not to be identified said the US soldiers were "not threatened by the demonstra-
tors."
Of the 13, dead who were swiftly buried yesterday, six were children aged just seven or eight, the second witness said.
Al-Jazeera's Baghdad correspondent said US forces opened fire after
someone in the crowd threw a stone at them.
He said a group, numbering up to 200, had finished evening prayers at a mosque and answered a call by SEE PAGE 11 COL 4 FROM PAGE 1
preachers to protest against the continued presence of US troops in Iraq.
He said he did not have an exact number for the injured who were being treated at five different hospitals in Falluja.
Falluja hospital director Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali said 13 people had been killed and at least 75 wounded. Some local people gave higher estimates, saying the protesters had been demanding that troops vacate a school in the town.
But US Lieutenant Christopher Hart said a crowd of 100 to 200 chanting people approached his men, who opened fire after two gunmen with combat rifles appeared from behind the crowd on a motorcycle and stated shooting.
Some people in the crowd then also fired at the troops, he said. He put the death toll at between seven and 10.
The incident came amid volatile anti-US feeling in the country, nearly three weeks after US tanks rolled into central Baghdad marking the end of Saddam's 24-year grip on power.
On Monday, US forces killed at least four Iraqi fighters in a firefight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an American military officer said.
Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray saw two US Army positions came under sustained small arms and heavy machinegun fire on the western side of the Tigris river.
The US forces hit back with heavy machineguns and lit up the evening sky with red and green flares to direct their fire before calling in helicopter gunships.
The shooting subsided after about 45 minutes, he said.
"They were firing from in and around a crowd. Friendly forces returned fire and the result was four or five enemy killed," US Staff Sergeant Gregg Sanders said.
It was not immediately clear who launched the attack but Army units had received reports from civilians earlier on Monday that parami-litaries loyal to Saddam Hussein were preparing an attack on the toppled president's 66th
birthday.
Murray said it appeared to be the heaviest fighting since US soldiers established control in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, more than two weeks ago.
US administrators said they were beefing up military patrols in Baghdad to increase security in the chaotic capital.
In Baghdad, US Major General Glenn Webster told reporters: "In the next two weeks an additional three to four thousand soldiers will move in to protect the city."
The announcement came as Jay Garner, the retired US general in charge of the country, began talks with dozens of Iraqi officials in Baghdad after delegates at a political conference held Monday said security was a top priority.
Speaking at a press conference with Garner before the meeting, Webster said, "We have over 12,000 soldiers serving now but as you know better than me, this is a large and bustling city and 12,000 soldiers can be easily lost in a city this size."
He said US troops would be making patrols of the capital, which continues to be plagued by sporadic violence and looting three weeks after Saddam was toppled, and insisted the US-led coalition was the sole power in Iraq.
Garner stressed that his team would be focussing on security and basic services, and asked for help from the population to weed out those trying to stake a claim to control following the seizure by coalition troops on Sunday of a former exile who proclaimed himself governor of Baghdad.
Garner on Monday hosted a meeting of around 250 Iraqis from across the political spectrum and pledged to bring democracy to the country.
Delegates agreed to hold a conference within a month that would create an Iraqi interim government to take over power when the United States pulls out.
Bush vowed Monday to see Iraq through to democracy and said that the US-led occupation was already improving the lives of Saddam Hussein's former subjects "hour by hour".
"Iraq can be an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the
entire Middle East," he told a cheering crowd in Dearborn, Michigan, home of a large Arab-American community.
"It'll be a hard journey, but every step of the way, Iraq will have a steady friend in the American people," he said, adding that the United States "has no intention of imposing our form of government or our culture" but will ensure that Iraq's new government "will protect the rights of all."
The US military also announced that Washington had moved its combined air command centre from Saudi Arabia to Qatar on Monday.
The announcement came as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew into the former headquarters at Prince Sultan airbase outside Riyadh to meet troops and Saudi leaders.
The visit to a key Gulf ally came after Rumsfeld announced in Qatar on Monday that the United States would reduce its military forces in the Gulf now Iraq no longer posed a threat to the region.
In London, top international experts in Mesopotamian antiquities were to meet to discuss ways to save Iraq's cultural heritage following the looting of the country's museums as the Iraqi war ended.
US forces have came under strong criticism for failing to prevent the looting of treasures of one of the birthplaces of civilisation, notably from the Baghdad archaeological museum.