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protests and riots in mosul
U.S. troops kill 3 potential looters
Unrest may be due to plans to install former exiled Iraqi
 
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April 17, 2003
 

MOSUL, Iraq -- U.S. troops killed three civilians in this northern Iraqi city Wednesday, a day after at least seven people were killed by U.S. troops as they rioted in protest against the conduct of U.S. military occupation.

The focus of the violence -- as it was Tuesday -- was central Mosul, where U.S. soldiers have occupied the governor's office building. Looters ransacked the structure five days ago after Iraqi forces abandoned the city.

According to witnesses, thieves tried to enter the Central Bank building, which stands just around the corner, and newly installed Iraqi police fired shots in the air to disperse them. U.S. guards atop the governor's building then shot toward the bank and killed three, by some accounts the would-be looters.

Tuesday's protest, riot and subsequent killings seem to have been sparked by U.S. plans to administer the city through Mashaan Juburri, a former commander of deposed President Saddam Hussein's bodyguards and special Iraqi forces. In 1991, Juburri led troops involved in putting down an uprising by Shiite Muslim rebels in southern Iraq. Some of Tuesday's rioters carried aloft photos of Shiite clerics.

Accounts of how the disorder began and why the U.S. soldiers opened fire differed widely.

Abdul Rahman Hassan Ali, a baker who attended Tuesday's demonstration, said: "People saw Mashaan enter the governor's office. They had heard he was to be the new governor. They were angry and started throwing stones and anything else they could find."

Ali and several other witnesses said some of the protesters were armed.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, briefing reporters in Doha, Qatar, said U.S. forces came under "aimed fire" and returned fire against some of the demonstrators. He estimated the number of dead at seven.

Mosul is proving to be one of the most volatile cities under U.S. occupation. It has long been a standard-bearer of pan-Arab nationalism. Only a day after U.S. troops entered Mosul, Iraqi flags sprang up on street after street. In the wake of looting that preceded the arrival of U.S. forces, residents quickly challenged the U.S. role in running Iraq.

Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer, the U.S. officer in charge of Mosul, appears to be investing heavily in traditional clan leaders to help keep the peace. He met with several Wednesday at his Mosul airport headquarters and plans more such gatherings, to include civic leaders in the coming days, U.S. officials said.

Juburri belongs to the Iraqi National Congress, an anti-Hussein group headed by a former banker, Ahmed Chalabi.

Juburri is a newcomer to opposition politics, however. He took exile in Damascus, Syria, during the 1990s but had little or no contact with established anti-Hussein groups. Last year, he showed up at the London conference organized by six major U.S.-endorsed opposition organizations and was included in a 65-member opposition council at the request of Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party.

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