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US Marines kill 12 protesters in Mosul Demonstrations widen to Kut, Nasiryah; riots in Tikrit aBAGHDAD: Angry street protests and a shooting incident that left 12 people dead on Tuesday marred early US efforts to start rebuilding Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. From Baghdad to Mosul in the north and Nasiriyah in the south, the American effort to follow up their quick military victory with a programme of economic and political reconstruction ran into Iraqi opposition. In Mosul, a hospital doctor reported 12 people dead and 60 wounded after shooting erupted when a crowd of Iraqis turned hostile during a speech by an American-installed local governor. Witnesses claimed US troops had opened fire on the throng. But a US military spokesman said troops had come under fire from at least two gunmen and fired back, without aiming at the crowd. Whatever the truth, the incident prompted a torrent of anti-American invective. A wrecked car sat in the city square and ambulances ferried wounded to hospitals, while US aircraft made repeated low-altitude passes. In Nasiriyah, some 20,000 mostly Shiite demonstrators provided a vocal counterpoint to a US-organised meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders to discuss the country's political future. The protesters marched to the centre of town chanting "Yes to freedom ... Yes to Islam ... No to America, No to Saddam" while the political forum was held under tight security at the nearby Biblical city of Ur. "We want the American and British forces to go. They have freed us from Saddam and their job is finished," said Ihsan Mohammad, an official with the regional federation of engineers. "If they intend to occupy us, we will oppose that. We ask them to leave us free to decide our future and not to impose people on us," he added. In Baghdad, some 200-300 Iraqis gathered outside the Palestine Hotel, where the US marines have set up an operations base, for a third straight day of protests against the US occupation. For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 meters from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel. "We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marine colonel who wore the name Zarcone but would not give his first name or title. The crowd later moved to the nearby square where the statue of Saddam was toppled on Wednesday to signal the end of the regime. As three of the marines' armoured amphibious vehicles passed by, they chanted: "No, no, USA." Although US officials have all but declared their military campaign over, tensions with the civilian population persist over a lack of police protection, water, electricity and other basic services. As the Iraqi protest grew more vocal outside the hotel, a marine corporal was holding an impromptu briefing for a few reporters on the progress made. Corporal John Hoellwarth said the US forces planned to boost joint police patrols, bring more hospitals back into service and have power restored to parts of Baghdad within 72 hours. He said 50 electrical engineers were brought in to assess the damage to the power system of the capital, which went down on April 4 amid massive US bombings, and repairs began Monday. "We expect power to be restored to parts of Baghdad in the next 48 to 72 hours," he said. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said separately that water should be restored to much of eastern Baghdad on Wednesday as its staff repaired the Qanat pumping station. With Baghdad's hospital system in a virtual state of collapse after widespread pillage, Hoellwarth said 14 of the city's 33 facilities were secure and operational. He could not say when the others would reopen. Hoellwarth said that joint Iraqi-US police patrols began on Monday with five Iraqi cars going out accompanied by marines in all-terrain Humvees, and "today many more patrols are running." He said US forces put out a call for 150 Iraqi policemen on Monday and had between 700 and 1,000 reporting for duty. "They are progressing steadily and we are also working to work out neighborhood watch programs," Hoellwarth said. Meanwhile, US tanks and troops moved through the streets of Tikrit in force on Tuesday after overpowering Iraqi troops in Saddam Hussein's hometown, but the anger and loyalty of its residents was not easily overcome. While US helicopters flew overhead, US Marines searched pedestrians for weapons at checkpoints and vehicle traffic was strictly controlled. The Marines seized the Tikrit South Airfield, on the city's southern outskirts, while taking rocket fire from Saddam loyalists. American tanks at a bridge over the Tigris River barred people from crossing, triggering the fury of a crowd. "Americans are against freedom and democracy!" shouted one man. "Saddam shall return!'' shouted another. "Victory is coming!" "(The Americans) are animals, people are sick of this. People are hungry," said a third. American troops met less resistance than anticipated and the town's defenders had been subjected to airstrikes for several days. Marines had attacked Tikrit from the south, west and north, capturing a key Tigris River bridge in the center of the city. Massive explosions, billowing smoke and flashes of light were seen and heard from Tikrit late on Monday. On Tuesday, some people were looting the city agricultural building and the governor-general's office but large-scale looting like that in Baghdad or Kirkuk was not immediately evident. "We're taking all automatic weapons," Marine Cpl Courtney Davis said at a checkpoint. "With handguns and pistols, we take the rounds and give them back the guns because they need them for protection against looters," he added. Davis said the Marines got AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades from some vehicles. "Yesterday we got 13 AKs and detained four people," he added. Davis said he had heard from his superiors that there were still pockets of resistance in the city and said locals told them there were still Iraqi military hiding out. Hundreds of protesters blocked the US Marines from entering Kut's city hall on Tuesday to meet a radical anti-American Shiite cleric who has declared himself in control here, military officials said. About 20 Marines from Task Force Tarawa decided against trying to enter the building after being confronted by 1,200 protesters, said Lt-Col Jean Malone, deputy operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Battalion. The protesters were shouting "No, No Chalabi!", referring to Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress opposition group. Many Iraqi opposition leaders fear the United States is trying to force Chalabi on them as leader of a new Iraqi administration. Said Abbas, a cleric who American officers claim is Iranian-backed and supported by only 10 per cent of the local population, seized city hall before coalition forces entered Kut last weekend. Military officials say he has been preaching anti-American statements in local mosques. Meanwhile, the commander of 16,000 Iraqi army troops who controlled the vast area along the Syrian border formally surrendered to US forces on Tuesday, marking another dramatic step toward the end of the Iraq war. The surrender came as the US-led coalition focuses growing attention on Syria, which Washington and London allege was hiding chemical weapons and had been cooperating extensively with the now-toppled regime of Saddam Hussein. "I am ready to help. Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," said a clearly emotional General Mohammed Jarawi, after inking the formal agreement under a broiling sun at a remote outpost in the western Iraqi desert. "I hope we have a very good friendship with the United States," Jarawi said, shaking the hand of US Colonel Curtis Potts, commander of the 4th Brigade of the US 3rd Infantry Division. "Now is the time to rebuild Iraq and turn over the country to the Iraqi people," Potts said after signing his name to the surrender. Jarawi headed the Anbar section command, Iraqi forces who under Saddam Hussein's rule had control over the sweeping western Anbar province extending all the way to the Syrian border and down along the frontier with Saudi Arabia. Jarawi, in full military uniform with black beret, stood silently with his number two, Brigadier Ahmad Sadeq, as Potts accepted the papers and handed them to his assistants, to be passed up later in the day to the highest levels of US command. The News International, Pakistan Update
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