- BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net
& News Agencies) -- Three U.S. soldiers and eight Iraqis were killed
in separate attacks rocking a number of Iraqi cities Friday, October 31,
according to eyewitnesses and U.S. military spokesman.
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- At Abu-Ghuraib town, some 25 kms to the west of Baghdad,
a U.S. convoy attacked by Iraqi fighters, leaving at least two U.S. soldiers,
eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.
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- The attack left at least four Iraqis, including a policeman,
dead in the attack, the eyewitnesses added.
-
- The crowd in the town was whipped into frenzy by the
father of a six-year-old boy who was crushed by a US tank, a witness later
told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
-
- "An American tank crushed a car killing ... the
child who was inside," said stall owner Nabil Abbas. The boy's father
alerted people who were just leaving mosques after Friday prayers, according
to Abbas.
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- The crowd burned tires, and shot at and hurled rocks
at US troops and Iraqi police, Abbas said.
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- "The police tried to contain the protest, the protesters
opened fire and a policeman was killed," said police Major Mussa Lazem.
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- Witnesses said U.S. troops fired back at the crowd.
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- "The U.S. soldiers fired blindly on the demonstrators.
They killed three Iraqi civilians," said Abbas Jassim, a medic.
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- Another witness said there are still some charred bodies
in the stalls that burned down.
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- The staff at a nearby hospital reported one death and
three people wounded, while 17 more were being treated for bullet wounds
at another hospital.
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- The area was sealed off Friday night with U.S. Humvee
military vehicles blocking access to all but residents whose houses had
already been searched.
-
- The U.S. occupation forces were not immediately available
to comment on the Abu Gharib clashes, but a U.S. military official earlier
confirmed the grenade attack on U.S. troops.
-
- In the meantime, one American soldier was killed and
four others from the 82nd Airborne Division wounded when a device exploded
at 8:45 am (0545 GMT) in Khaldiyah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the
capital.
-
- Washington has now lost 119 troops in action since the
major combat was declared over on May 1, more than it lost during the six-week
spring invasion.
-
- A U.S. statement said there are a number "of rumors
of a 'Day Resistance' throughout Baghdad on Saturday and Sunday, November
1 and 2," marking six months since Washington declared major combat
over.
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- Fallujah attacks
-
- Moving north, U.S. soldiers opened fire on an Iraqi farmer
and killed him earlier in the day, a U.S. spokesman told IOL.
-
- He made no mention of the reasons behind the shooting.
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- In the restive town of Fallujah, some 65 kms to the west
of Baghdad, angry local inhabitants attacked and set ablaze the headquarters
of the Iraqi governor, an eyewitness told IOL correspondent by telephone.
-
- The U.S. soldiers and Iraqi policemen guarding the building
opened fire on the attackers, killing one of them, according to al-Jazeera
satellite channel.
-
- Civil defense official Ahmad Khalil al-Rawi said that
the unrest had started with an explosion, which had prompted neighbors
angry at the almost daily violence around the town hall to send a delegation
to demand that the municipality move its offices elsewhere.
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- "They came in to say that they were fed up with
bombs and attacks against the municipality every day. They asked that it
be moved to another place, away from residential areas," Rawi said.
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- "But after a brawl broke out, a policeman opened
fire and killed one of the residents, Shaker Hekmat. Then the neighbors
went home, fetched arms and attacked the municipalityî.
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- Subjected to a barrage of bullets and stones, the police
retreated to a courtyard behind the building, while U.S. military helicopters
hovered overhead.
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- Landmine Deaths
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- In the east, two Iraqi civilians were killed when a landmine
exploded under a car on the way to the nearby Dalli Abbass town in Baaquba
some 65 kms to the east of Baghdad, according to al-Jazeera.
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- The attacks came as the U.S. occupation forces and Iraqi
police have fortified their security measures in Baghdad today following
Monday attacks on the office of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) and at least five police centers in the city that killed and
wounded hundreds of citizens and policemen.
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- Amid a recent upsurge in violence, 119 U.S. soldiers
have now been killed since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major
hostilities over on May 1 - more than those killed during the war itself.
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- A U.S. defense official in Washington said Thursday that
a former Iraqi general, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is believed to be coordinating
attacks in Iraq by what the official termed "foreign fighters and
Saddam loyalistsî.
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- Observers said the anti-American sentiments now growing
among ordinary Iraqis jeered by the continued occupation of the oil-rich
country and lack of security or adequate basic services in its war-ravaged
towns and cities should be taken into consideration.
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- "Why do they deny the Iraqis the right to take up
arms for fighting against their occupiers," said one Iraqi scholar
at the Friday prayers which also saw anti-American rhetoric and draw attentive
audience.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/ 2003-10/31/article09.shtml
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