11Jan04-Haider Saladdin-Tensions Flare in South Iraq; Mosul Kurds Shelled
By Haider Saladdin
AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Scores of angry protesters gathered Sunday in Amara in southern Iraq, demanding compensation for at least five Iraqis killed when police and British troops opened fire to quell a violent demonstration.
In the nearby city of Basra, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen working for the civilian administration in southern Iraq was found shot dead, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) said.
"An Iraqi-born American citizen working with CPA South was found shot dead in Basra Saturday," spokesman Dominic d'Angelo said. "His body was found together with that of another man, who was not associated with CPA South."
There were no further details on the killings. Guerrillas fighting the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq have often targeted Iraqis cooperating with the civilian administration.
Mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq has been far more peaceful than the restive Sunni Muslim areas around Baghdad, where most of the resistance to the occupation has been concentrated.
But tension flared Saturday in Amara, 365 km (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad, when a demonstration over unemployment turned violent.
Iraqi police believed they were shot at during the protest and returned fire, while British troops with armored vehicles were deployed to support them, Britain's Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said British troops opened fire when grenades were hurled at them.
All the dead were Iraqi civilians.
"One, maybe two, (of the dead) were possibly killed by British troops," British army spokesman Major Tim Smith told Reuters in Amara Sunday.
"Those troops were firing in self-defense. It was quite clear that a number of objects were thrown at the British troops, possibly grenades. I can assure everybody that they only fired in self-defense."
RELATIVES DEMAND COMPENSATION
Sunday scores of Iraqis, many of them relatives of those killed the day before, staged another protest demanding compensation. Iraqi police and British troops watched from a distance but did not intervene.
In the northern town of Mosul, an official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said two mortar rounds hit the roof of the party's headquarters Sunday morning, and two hit nearby houses.
He said there were no casualties, but local residents said one person was injured.
Mosul lies in a semi-autonomous zone ruled by Kurds, who form a majority locally. There has been tension in the region as they try to expand their influence in the post-Saddam era in the face of opposition from Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmens.
In the holy city of Najaf, a delegation from the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council visited Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shi'ite leader, in a vain effort to overcome his objections to America's plans for returning sovereignty to Iraqis.
Under the U.S. plan agreed with the Governing Council, a transitional assembly will be selected by regional caucuses by the end of May and this assembly will select an interim government that will take over sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections would be held by the end of 2005.
Sistani has made it known that he thinks full elections should be held this year for the transitional assembly. The United States and the Governing Council say Iraq is not yet ready for elections.
After the meeting, Governing Council member Mowaffak al-Rubaie said Sistani was "listening to all the available proposals and choices, but still insists on elections."
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