- AMARAH, Iraq (AP) -- Waves
of protesting Iraqis marched against British soldiers, hurling stones and
setting off homemade explosives in the southeastern city of Amarah on Sunday,
a day after clashes killed six protesters and wounded at least 11.
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- Meanwhile, Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric Sunday hardened
his opposition to a U.S. plan to select a provisional national assembly
- a possible further complication in American efforts to hand over power
to Iraqis by July 1.
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- Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani demanded the
assembly be directly elected - saying a body chosen by local caucuses,
as forseen by the Americans, will not have legitimacy. "This will,
in turn, give rise to new problems and the political and security situation
will deteriorate," he said in a statement released by his office.
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- Sistani also demanded the assembly approve a draft constitution
and proposed agreements governing the continued presence of U.S. and other
coalition troops in Iraq beyond July 1. Sistani's views are widely respected
by Iraqi Shiites, and his opposition forced the Americans to change their
transition plans once already.
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- Elsewhere, U.S. troops in Tikrit arrested a Saddam loyalist
Sunday suspected in last month's shooting of an American soldier who was
saved by his flak jacket. The shot soldier was among the troops arresting
the man, an alleged member of Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary movement.
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- In the southern city of Amarah, screaming protesters
- some armed with sticks and shovels - rushed in waves against British
troops guarding the city hall. The British drove the crowd back from the
compound, which also houses the U.S.-led occupation force and the 1st Battalion
of Britain's Light Infantry.
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- Booms and flashes of light exploded in the crowd, believed
to be from homemade bombs of tin cans packed with explosives and nails
and lit with candlewicks.
-
- Soldiers blocked roads and periodically pushed demonstrators
back, sometimes with batons, sometimes marching in unison behind riot shields
and, against younger protesters, simply shoving them with their hands.
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- "Yesterday there were more adults with much more
violent intent," said British Maj. Johnny Bowron. We are trying to
permit a peaceful protest but prevent loss of life or damage to property."
-
- Tensions in Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, erupted
Saturday after hundreds of Iraqis gathered to protest that authorities
had not kept a promise to give them jobs.
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- They stoned the town hall, shattering windows. Shots
rang out, makeshift bombs were thrown and the British and Iraqi police
opened fire. Hospital officials said six people were killed. The British
put the death toll at five - with no casualties among soldiers or police.
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- Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam's security forces
were the biggest employer in the city of 400,000. On Sunday, demonstrators
sent a representative to talk to British and Iraqi officials, who promised
them 8,000 jobs, according to witnesses. But protesters said a similar
promise made weeks before had not been fulfilled and the clash ensued.
No Iraqi police were visible at the scene Sunday.
-
- The raid on the Tikrit home of the alleged Saddam loyalist
was prompted by a neighbor's tip, according to Lt. Col. Steve Russell,
commander of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army's
Texas-based 4th Infantry Division.
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- The soldier allegedly shot by the Iraqi, Sgt. Jeffrey
Allen of Leitchfield, Ky., made the arrest, Russell said. Russell described
the Iraqi man, whose identity was not revealed, as a member of Saddam's
former Fedayeen paramilitary fighters.
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- Allen was shot twice in the back on Dec. 30 during a
patrol in Tikrit but was saved by a protective plate in his flak jacket,
Russell said.
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- In the northern city of Mosul, four mortar shells exploded
at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan office Sunday morning, damaging the
building but causing no injuries, according to party officials who were
there at the time.
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- Two other explosions blasted near the U.S.-led coalition
office in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, but police said they appeared
to be percussion bombs "aimed at terrorizing."
-
- Also Sunday, authorities said the body of an Iraqi working
with the U.S.-led coalition was found in the southern city of Basra, along
with another man not associated with the coalition. Insurgents opposed
to the U.S.-led occupation have targeted soldiers as well as civilians
and Iraqi police working with the occupiers.
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- In Baghdad, two Estonian soldiers suffered minor injuries
when a grenade was thrown at their patrol on Saturday, according to Estonian
army spokesman Peeter Tali.
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- On Saturday, the Danish military said its engineering
troops and Icelandic de-miners found artillery shells near Quarnah, north
of Basra, which may contain chemical blister agents. The shells were wrapped
in plastic but some had leaked and they appeared to have been buried for
at least 10 years, the statement said.
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- The shells were sent for further testing to determine
if they contained chemical weapons, banned in Iraq under U.N. resolutions.
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- Before the war, the United States alleged Iraq still
had stockpiles of mustard gas, a World War I-era blister agent stored in
liquid form. U.S. intelligence officials also claimed Iraq had sarin, cyclosarin
and VX, which are extremely deadly nerve agents.
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- Lack of evidence in a nine-months search since then has
led critics to suggest the Bush administration either mishandled or exaggerated
its knowledge of Iraq's alleged arsenal.
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- Saddam's regime used chemical weapons against Iranian
soldiers and killed an estimated 5,000 Kurdish civilians in a chemical
attack on the northern city of Halabja in 1988.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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