Thousands of angry Shiites denounce US after killings in Iraq
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Anti-US fervor surged in the Iraqi capital as thousands of Shiite Muslims staged an angry funeral march following fighting here that killed two Iraqis, as well as two American soldiers.
In Washington, meanwhile, US Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) launched a fierce frontal assault on critics of the Iraq (news - web sites) war.
And Turkish officials said they were disturbed by Iraqi opposition to a decision to send troops to the country, urging the United States to sort out the wrangle.
In Baghdad's Sadr City district, more than 10,000 Shiites gathered for the funeral procession of two of their own killed in a firefight Thursday night between the Mehdi Army militia and coalition soldiers that also left several people hurt.
Militiamen armed with assault rifles and pistols escorted the funeral procession, led by a cleric who waved a ceremonial sword.
Raising their fists in the air, the men roared, "There is no God but Allah. America is the enemy of God."
Many among the crowd wore the black or green headbands of the Mehdi Army, the recently formed militia of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Clerics urged the crowd to remain calm and avert further violence, but one religious leader compared the Americans to "wolves."
Just a few hours earlier and a few blocks away from the firefight, two US soldiers were killed and four others wounded in an ambush in the teeming slum.
Earlier Thursday, a suicide car bombing had gutted a nearby police station, leaving eight victims and fuelling anger in the district.
Four Iraqi police were wounded early Friday as they were targeted in an attack northeast of Baghdad.
A US officer said another US soldier was wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on an armored vehicle guarding a bank in western Baghdad. Witnesses said three soldiers were hurt.
In other violence, two employees of the Northern Oil Co. were killed and four wounded in a roadside bombing in northern Iraq, while one of the company's pipelines was also attacked.
The explosion ripped a company bus on the road between Baiji and the town of Riyadh, west of Kirkuk, the company's director told AFP.
Two explosions caused large fires at two of the company's parallel oil pipelines in northern Iraq, he said.
The first explosion was caused by a bomb planted on the pipeline and the second pipeline blew up because of the heat, firefighters said.
The United States has appealed to other countries to help it solve the security crisis, but Ankara chaffed Friday at criticism from the Iraqi leadership at its decision to send troops into the neighbouring country.
"Some members of the Iraqi Governing Council have recently started to manipulate us for their own political ends. We are very much disturbed and we have conveyed this very openly to the United States," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reportedly said in the southern city of Antalya.
He did not mention names, but suggested that some members of the US-appointed body opposing a Turkish deployment had previously favored it.
Iraqis say they are against military involvement by neighboring countries fearing it might interfere with domestic politics and impede the already fragile efforts to rebuild their war-torn country.
Iraqi Kurds, who have chilly ties with Ankara, are particularly hostile to the idea. They are wary that Turkey, which has long been accused of oppressing its own restive Kurds, wants to thwart their recent political gains.
But Turkish leaders made it clear they were looking toward Washington to smooth over differences.
Meanwhile, in a speech in Washington, Cheney argued that following the advice of those who had opposed the war would cripple the US-led global war on terrorism.
"It comes down to a choice between action that assures our security and inaction that allows dangers to grow," he said in a speech.
Cheney also pleaded for patience with US expert David Kay's thus-far vain search for the weapons of mass destruction the White House repeatedly asserted were certainly in fallen dictator Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s hands prior to the US-led March invasion.
Critics have said the as-yet fruitless search vindicates charges that the Bush administration exaggerated the threat Baghdad posed in order to justify war.
Cheney seized on Kay's findings of concealed evidence linked to weapons programs as evidence that Saddam was in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441, portrayed here as the Iraqi leader's last chance to avert war.
US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has seen his approval ratings drop in opinion polls that show rising unhappiness about the situation in Iraq -- developments that could hurt his 2004 reelection bid.
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