US
Troops Kill 10 Injure 100 As
They fire on protesters
From correspondents
in Mosul, Iraq
Agence France-Presse
15 April, 2003
US troops opened fire on
a crowd hostile to the new pro-US governor in the northern Iraqi city
of Mosul today, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100,
witnesses and doctors said.
The incident overshadowed
the start of US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-Saddam
Hussein Iraq and could ignite anti-US sentiment sparked in protests
in Baghdad and at the talks in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Witnesses reported that US
troops had fired into a crowd which was becoming increasingly hostile
towards the new governor in the northern oil city, Mashaan al-Juburi,
as he was making a pro-US speech.
"There are perhaps 100
wounded and 10 to 12 dead," Dr Ayad al-Ramadhani said at the city
hospital.
The Pentagon, meanwhile,
said it was not yet prepared to declare victory after nearly four weeks
of war on Iraq, but US commanders expressed hope the main stage of hostilities
was over with the fall of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit yesterday.
The commander of a 16,000-strong
Iraqi military unit surrendered control of an area of western Iraq extending
to the Syrian border, after US central command said it was continuing
to consolidate its position.
US officials switched their
focus to Syria, alleging that Damascus had been developing weapons of
mass destruction, prompting appeals for calm from the United Nations
and Arab and European governments.
The US-sponsored meeting
in Nasiriyah is the first since the launch of the war on March 20 and
was billed as a major step forward in the search for a new Iraqi leadership.
But the man tipped to become
Iraq's next leader, Ahmad Chalabi, head of the US-backed Iraqi National
Congress, was not due to attend.
Iraq's leading Shi'ite Muslim
opposition group was also boycotting the talks, amid distrust over the
US role and division over who should lead Iraq.
Chalabi, who has insisted
he is not a candidate for a post in the interim administration to be
run by retired US general Jay Garner, planned to send a representative.
Dozens of representatives
from Iraq's fractious mix of ethnic, tribal and opposition groups, including
those formerly in exile, were said to be invited although no official
list was given.
The New York Times quoted
Garner as saying his mission to rebuild Iraq's political structures
would be messy and contentious.
His fears appeared justified
as the talks in the Shi'ite bastion sparked a demonstration estimated
by journalists to number around 20,000 people, led by religious figures.
"Yes to freedom ...
Yes to Islam ... No to America, No to Saddam," the crowd chanted
in the centre of Nasiriyah.
The meeting came against
a backdrop of renewed differences across the Atlantic, this time over
Syria.
US officials have accused
the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of state terrorism, developing
weapons of mass destruction and harbouring fugitive Iraqi officials.
"We will examine possible
measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature as we move forward,"
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said.
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer branded Syria a terrorist state, while Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld claimed Syria had carried out a chemical weapons test "over
the past 12, 15 months".
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon joined the offensive, describing Assad as "dangerous,"
and urging Washington to put "very heavy ... political and economic
pressure" on Syria.
But Syria's ambassador to
the United Nations denied the allegations, accusing Washington of double
standards over its support for Israel, the strongest military power
in the Middle East.
"We don't have weapons
of mass destruction," Rostom al-Zoubi said in an interview with
CNN, describing the US charges as "baseless".
"It is Israel, which
has a big arsenal of weapons of mass destruction."
European Union foreign ministers
called on Washington to tone down its rhetoric.
"What we need now is
to cool off the situation, not to increase the tension, we have enough
tensions in the region ... not to create more," EU foreign policy
chief Javier Solana said yesterday.
The Arab League and the Egyptian
government also condemned the accusations, while UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan warned that statements directed at Syria could destabilise
the whole Middle East.
Syria's official media charged
that the US allegations were a smokescreen to keep Iraq under occupation.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria
Clarke told reporters not to expect a US declaration of victory after
the capture of Tikrit.
But US and British officers
said they hoped the city's fall meant the effective end of the war,
although there was still no sign of Saddam himself.
"I would anticipate
that the major combat engagements are over because the major Iraqi units
on the ground cease to show coherence," said Major General Stanley
McChrystal, vice director of operations of the Joint Staff in Washington.
The surrender of the Iraqi
army in the western Iraqi desert marked the latest sign of crumbling
Iraqi resistance, with Major Rumi Nielson-Green in Qatar reporting "a
quiet day on the military front."
"I am ready to help.
Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," Iraqi General
Mohammed Jarawi told US Colonel Curtis Potts after signing the surrender.
"I hope we have a very
good friendship with the United States," he said.
A scaledown of the 300,000-strong
US force deployed in the region was already underway.
Two US aircraft carriers
- the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Constellation - were due to head home
from the Gulf as early as this week. More than 1,000 US soldiers were
also due to start leaving Turkey today, local officials said.
But life in Baghdad remained
far from normal six days after US troops entered. Most shops remained
closed, and many parts of the city still lacked water or electricity.
And US forces tried for the
first time today to prevent the media from covering a third day of anti-US
protests by Iraqis outside the hotel housing a US operations base in
central Baghdad.
Some 200-300 Iraqis gathered
outside the Palestine Hotel to express their rage at what they said
was the US failure to restore order after the fall of Saddam's regime.
Agence France-Presse