Iraqis angry over protest killings
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Iraqis protest Sunday in the southern city of Amarah.
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Protests in Amarah, Iraq, continue in the wake of civilian shooting deaths.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Crowds of Iraqis have been protesting the killings of at least five people by police and British troops.
Police officers and soldiers opened fire on demonstrators Saturday when they said a demonstration in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah over unemployment turned violent. A British military official in Basra said five people were killed and a sixth person was wounded.
Witnesses told Reuters that scores of Iraqis, many related to those killed, staged another protest in the city, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, on Sunday demanding compensation.
The protest was reported to be peaceful with no reports of violence. The Associated Press said British troops with riot shields and batons were guarding the mayor's office, which had its windows smashed the day before by the demonstrators.
Saturday's clashes started when shots rang out from the crowd, a British military spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, troops "received reports of small explosions in the crowd," she told the AP.
Iraqi police, thinking they were under attack, opened fire into the crowd but did not hit anyone, she said. However, witnesses said the police killed some protesters.
British officials told CNN that soldiers moved in with armored vehicles to support the police, and protesters hurled explosive devices at them.
The soldiers shot dead a man preparing to throw a device, they said. However, officials could not give details on how the other Iraqis died.
Six people were killed and at least 11 wounded, Dr. Saad Hamoud, of the Al-Zahrawi Surgical Hospital, told the AP. The British said they had reports of five deaths and one injury. The soldiers and police had no casualties.
A number of protests over unemployment have been staged in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in April. On Tuesday, police in Basra opened fire on former Iraqi soldiers who were demanding payment of a promised stipend. At least four people were wounded.
About half of Iraq's 26 million population are unemployed or underemployed, according to a United Nations/World Bank report issued in October. Of those, 400,000 are former Iraqi soldiers who lost their jobs when U.S. administrator Paul Bremer abolished the army.
The deaths on Saturday came as U.S. officials acknowledged that American soldiers had killed two Iraqi policemen on Friday when the men failed to identify themselves near Kirkuk.
The military also said a U.S. Army helicopter that crashed last week near Fallujah, killing nine soldiers, was probably shot down. However, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the cause was still under investigation.
The UH-60 transport helicopter was on a medical evacuation mission when it crashed, military officials said. It was the latest of several fatal crashes and the third in Fallujah since November.
The city is west of Baghdad in a region known as the "Sunni Triangle," a hotbed of anti-U.S.-led coalition activity.
Investigators also are looking into an apparent attack Thursday on a C-5 cargo plane that had to limp back to Baghdad International Airport when one of its engines exploded shortly after takeoff.
Other developments
• The United States has evidence to corroborate allegations that Russian firms exported night-vision goggles and radar-jamming equipment to Iraq, a senior State Department official said. The official did not disclose when the exports took place, but the equipment was used during the recent war with the United States, he said. The official also said that U.S. officials had addressed the allegations with the Russians but "never received entirely satisfactory explanations." Iraq has been under a United Nations-mandated arms embargo since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
• On Sunday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair again insisted that he was right to take military action in Iraq based on intelligence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, although no such weapons have yet been found. (Full story)
• An Iraqi-born U.S. resident, Majeed Hanoun, was found shot to death in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman said Sunday. His body was found Saturday along with that of his Iraqi friend, Saramet Na'um, who was not connected to the U.S.-led CPA, the spokesman said. Hanoun had been working on port security for the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, a U.S.-funded program, the spokesman said.
• Saddam Hussein has been classified as a U.S. prisoner of war, but it does not under the Geneva Conventions preclude an Iraqi role in trying him for war crimes, a coalition official said Saturday. (Full story)
• Brig. Gen. Kimmitt Saturday confirmed that Danish troops recently found suspicious mortar shells in southern Iraq and officials are checking to see if they are chemical weapons. (Full story)
CNN's Satinder Bindra and Correspondent Ram Ramgopal contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
