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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....QCL1YKCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=2648783
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead at least 13 Iraqis during an anti-American protest in the town of Falluja overnight, witnesses said on Tuesday, in a clash likely to inflame anger at the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Witnesses and doctors in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, told Reuters U.S. troops opened fire on people demonstrating against their presence at a school in the town.
Falluja general hospital director Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali said 13 people had been killed and at least 75 wounded. Some local people gave higher estimates.
U.S. military headquarters in Qatar acknowledged troops in Falluja had opened fire on a group of Iraqis, but said they were armed with combat rifles and had shot first.
U.S. officers seeking to restore order in the volatile aftermath of Saddam's fall said 3,000 to 4,000 extra troops and military police would pour into Baghdad within the next 10 days to boost security in the capital.
Major General Glenn Webster, deputy commander of U.S. land forces in Iraq, said the decision to bring in reinforcements was not related to any specific incident but the announcement followed a series of setbacks to U.S. efforts to win popular Iraqi support.
With Saddam Hussein removed from power, the United States said it was pulling nearly all of its military forces out of neighboring Saudi Arabia in a major realignment of its presence in the Gulf.
The shooting in Falluja, and a clash between U.S. forces and Iraqi fighters in the northern city of Mosul on Monday in which six Iraqis were killed, punctured some of the optimism generated by a mass meeting convened by the United States in Baghdad to kickstart the transition to democracy.
FALLUJA BURIES ITS DEAD
"Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs," mourners in Falluja chanted as they buried some of the dead at a cemetery while U.S. helicopters flew overhead.
"It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons," said local Sunni Muslim cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud. "They were asking the Americans to leave the school so they could use it."
But a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar said the American troops "came upon a group of Iraqis armed with AK-47s."
"The Iraqis fired on them. The troops returned fire," she said.
The shooting followed a firefight in Mosul in which U.S. forces said they killed six suspected paramilitaries loyal to Saddam, whose 66th birthday was on Monday.
In the heaviest fighting in the country for days, U.S. units opened fire with heavy machineguns and lit up the night sky with red flares before calling in helicopter gunships.
U.S. forces announced they were holding Saddam's veteran oil minister, Amir Muhammed Rasheed, whose wife is bioweapons scientist Rihab Taha -- widely known as Dr Germ.
He was number 47 on a U.S. list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's administration and the six of spades in a deck of cards issued to troops hunting former Iraqi leaders.
The United States has now captured 14 of those on the list.
At the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, a senior U.S. official traveling with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on a tour of the region said Washington was ending military operations in the kingdom and removing almost all of its forces.
"It was by very mutual agreement," the official said. Only some of the 5,000 U.S. personnel involved in training would remain in Saudi Arabia.
The move effectively ends a relationship dating back to 1991 when the United States used Saudi Arabia as a launch pad for the last Gulf War to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait and then as a base to police a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq.
TROOPS NO LONGER NEEDED
"When you no longer have Southern Watch, then it's self evident that you no longer need bodies here," the U.S. official said, referring to the "no-fly" operations.
The presence of Western troops in the kingdom -- home to Islam's holiest sites -- has angered many Saudis, already incensed over U.S. support for Israel.
The U.S. presence was among the first grievances aired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to justify attacks against the United States. Washington blames bin Laden for the suicide attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in September 2001.
U.S. officers said on Tuesday the military had already moved operations of a key combat air control center from a Saudi airbase to neighboring Qatar.
U.S. officials have declined to say if Rumsfeld intends to visit Iraq itself during his tour, which has already taken him to Qatar -- U.S. headquarters for the war -- and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. efforts to introduce democracy to Iraq following the ousting of Saddam made progress on Monday when about 250 prominent Iraqis from across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum agreed to hold a national conference in four weeks time to choose an interim government.
"All efforts should be made to hold a national conference within four weeks ... to select a transitional Iraqi government," they said in a statement read out at the end of the nearly 10-hour meeting with U.S. reconstruction chief Jay Garner.
U.S. troops were widely welcomed for overthrowing Saddam but many Iraqis are now anxious for them to go home. Anti-American sentiment was stoked on Saturday when an arms dump exploded in southern Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians.
Saddam's fate remain a mystery. His sons Qusay and Uday have also not been found, nor have the weapons of mass destruction which the United States said justified the war.
Key former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, say Iraq has destroyed all its biological and chemical weapons.
President Bush, speaking on Monday in Dearborn, Michigan, said the United States had no intention of imposing its form of government or culture on Iraq and would ensure all Iraqis had a say in the new government.
"Whether you're Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or Turkmen or Christian or Jew or Muslim, no matter what your faith, freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation," Bush told an audience that included a large number of Arab and Muslim immigrants to the United States.
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops shot dead at least 13 Iraqis during an anti-American protest in the town of Falluja overnight, witnesses said on Tuesday, in a clash likely to inflame anger at the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Witnesses and doctors in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, told Reuters U.S. troops opened fire on people demonstrating against their presence at a school in the town.
Falluja general hospital director Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali said 13 people had been killed and at least 75 wounded. Some local people gave higher estimates.
U.S. military headquarters in Qatar acknowledged troops in Falluja had opened fire on a group of Iraqis, but said they were armed with combat rifles and had shot first.
U.S. officers seeking to restore order in the volatile aftermath of Saddam's fall said 3,000 to 4,000 extra troops and military police would pour into Baghdad within the next 10 days to boost security in the capital.
Major General Glenn Webster, deputy commander of U.S. land forces in Iraq, said the decision to bring in reinforcements was not related to any specific incident but the announcement followed a series of setbacks to U.S. efforts to win popular Iraqi support.
With Saddam Hussein removed from power, the United States said it was pulling nearly all of its military forces out of neighboring Saudi Arabia in a major realignment of its presence in the Gulf.
The shooting in Falluja, and a clash between U.S. forces and Iraqi fighters in the northern city of Mosul on Monday in which six Iraqis were killed, punctured some of the optimism generated by a mass meeting convened by the United States in Baghdad to kickstart the transition to democracy.
FALLUJA BURIES ITS DEAD
"Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs," mourners in Falluja chanted as they buried some of the dead at a cemetery while U.S. helicopters flew overhead.
"It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons," said local Sunni Muslim cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud. "They were asking the Americans to leave the school so they could use it."
But a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar said the American troops "came upon a group of Iraqis armed with AK-47s."
"The Iraqis fired on them. The troops returned fire," she said.
The shooting followed a firefight in Mosul in which U.S. forces said they killed six suspected paramilitaries loyal to Saddam, whose 66th birthday was on Monday.
In the heaviest fighting in the country for days, U.S. units opened fire with heavy machineguns and lit up the night sky with red flares before calling in helicopter gunships.
U.S. forces announced they were holding Saddam's veteran oil minister, Amir Muhammed Rasheed, whose wife is bioweapons scientist Rihab Taha -- widely known as Dr Germ.
He was number 47 on a U.S. list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's administration and the six of spades in a deck of cards issued to troops hunting former Iraqi leaders.
The United States has now captured 14 of those on the list.
At the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia, a senior U.S. official traveling with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on a tour of the region said Washington was ending military operations in the kingdom and removing almost all of its forces.
"It was by very mutual agreement," the official said. Only some of the 5,000 U.S. personnel involved in training would remain in Saudi Arabia.
The move effectively ends a relationship dating back to 1991 when the United States used Saudi Arabia as a launch pad for the last Gulf War to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait and then as a base to police a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq.
TROOPS NO LONGER NEEDED
"When you no longer have Southern Watch, then it's self evident that you no longer need bodies here," the U.S. official said, referring to the "no-fly" operations.
The presence of Western troops in the kingdom -- home to Islam's holiest sites -- has angered many Saudis, already incensed over U.S. support for Israel.
The U.S. presence was among the first grievances aired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to justify attacks against the United States. Washington blames bin Laden for the suicide attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in September 2001.
U.S. officers said on Tuesday the military had already moved operations of a key combat air control center from a Saudi airbase to neighboring Qatar.
U.S. officials have declined to say if Rumsfeld intends to visit Iraq itself during his tour, which has already taken him to Qatar -- U.S. headquarters for the war -- and the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. efforts to introduce democracy to Iraq following the ousting of Saddam made progress on Monday when about 250 prominent Iraqis from across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum agreed to hold a national conference in four weeks time to choose an interim government.
"All efforts should be made to hold a national conference within four weeks ... to select a transitional Iraqi government," they said in a statement read out at the end of the nearly 10-hour meeting with U.S. reconstruction chief Jay Garner.
U.S. troops were widely welcomed for overthrowing Saddam but many Iraqis are now anxious for them to go home. Anti-American sentiment was stoked on Saturday when an arms dump exploded in southern Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians.
Saddam's fate remain a mystery. His sons Qusay and Uday have also not been found, nor have the weapons of mass destruction which the United States said justified the war.
Key former Iraqi officials in U.S. custody, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, say Iraq has destroyed all its biological and chemical weapons.
President Bush, speaking on Monday in Dearborn, Michigan, said the United States had no intention of imposing its form of government or culture on Iraq and would ensure all Iraqis had a say in the new government.
"Whether you're Sunni or Shia or Kurd or Chaldean or Assyrian or Turkmen or Christian or Jew or Muslim, no matter what your faith, freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation," Bush told an audience that included a large number of Arab and Muslim immigrants to the United States.