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Grenades hit US military vehicles

Thousands protest in Baghdad

AFP, Fallujah
Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) hit three US military vehicles in farmland on the edge of the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, yesterday, witnesses said.
There were at least three casualties in the roadside ambush that occurred at 3:15 pm local time in an uninhabited area, thick with palm trees, where the attacker could easily hide, they said.
Two medical helicopters took the casualties from the site where two of
the vehicles were engulfedin flames.
Attacks occur almost daily on US forces around this town, where ousted ruler Saddam Hussein counts many supporters among the Sunni Muslim community.
AUS military spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, thousands of Sunni Muslims protested in Baghdad yesterday against Iraq's new US-sponsored Governing Council as mosque imams used their weekly sermons to accuse the Shiite- dominated body of planting the seeds of civil strife.
"Shame on those who consider Baghdad's fall a national holiday," said one banner raised by the demonstrators who converged on the Um al-Qora mosque on the western fringes of Baghdad from several Sunni mosques in the capital after Fridayprayers.
The reference was to a decision by the Governing Council during its inaugural meeting on Sunday to declare April 9, the day US-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein, a national holiday in its first act as a ruling body.
"We (Sunnis) are the silent majority, not a minority," read another banner, while a third said "no to division into Sunnis and Shiites."
The 25-member council, supposed to reflect Iraq's ethnic and confessional makeup, has 13 Shiite members.
The protesters also chanted slogans against the US occupation, vowing to "exterminate the infidel (US) army."
"Revolt, revolt O Baghdad, let Bremer follow Nuri," they shouted, alluding to US civil administrator Paul Bremer and Nuri as-Said,
Iraq's prime minister under the monarchy who was killed by a mob when it was overthrown in 1958.
Friday's rally was called by Iraq's Council of Ulema, a body grouping Sunni religious scholars.
In a statement read to the protesters, a cleric said the ulema believed the Governing Council had divided the Iraqi people along sectarian lines, declaring "a certain community to be the majority ... without an accurate population census".
"The group that was given a majority (on the council) does not make up a majority... (even) among Muslims," the statement claimed, in defiance of independent population estimates which put the Shiites in a large maj ority.
Shortly before, the imam of Um al-Qora mosque, Hareth al-Dari, had also lambasted the Governing Council, telling the faithful it was "rejected and unacceptable because it divides Iraq into groups andraces".
"It is planting the seeds of hostility between the sons of this society," said Dari. "That is why we don't support it... This council does not serve the interests of the people or the nation."
The harsh criticism of the coun-
cil came against the backdrop of mounting attacks against US troops, chiefly in Sunni-populated areas of central Iraq believed to host loyalists of Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.