United States troops have opened fire on a crowd opposed to the US-installed governor in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100, witnesses and doctors said.
The incident overshadowed the start of US-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq and was sure to ignite anti-US sentiment sparked in protests in Baghdad and at the talks in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Witnesses reported that US troops had fired into a crowd which was becoming increasingly hostile towards the new governor, Mashaan al-Juburi, as he was making a pro-US speech in the northern oil city.
“There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead,” Dr Ayad al-Ramadhani said at the city hospital.
US forces in Mosul refused to comment to AFP, and at US Central Command in Qatar, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a press briefing he had seen no military reports of the incident and could not confirm it.
One witness, Marwan Mohammed, 50, told AFP: “The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies.”
Another, Ayad Hassun, 37, said: “They (the soldiers) climbed on top of the building and first fired at a building near the crowd, with the glass falling on the civilians. People started to throw stones, then the Americans fired at them,” Hassun said.
“Dozens of people fell,” he said, his own shirt blood-stained.
According to a third witness, Abdulrahman Ali, 49, the US soldiers opened fire when they saw the crowd running at the government building.
Liberation involves killing protestors who are unhappy with the American puppet governemt. Yes, isn’t freedom great???
It really seems the soldiers are overstepping their bounds a lot. I remember seeing one soldier yelling at some protestors in Baghdad, “SHUT THE FUCK UP, WE’RE HERE FOR YOUR FUCKING FREEDOM” Is that any way to treat the innocent civilians who you’ve just invaded? I think not. If you’re really there for freedom then you treat the civilians with respect and realize that they don’t want Americans in Iraq to rule them.
2 comments on “US Soldiers Gun Down Civilian Protestors”
Much like Bush, I think a lot of the soldiers over in Iraq are on a power trip. I recall seeing a short clip not long ago of an Iraqi woman shouting at a soldier because of a child who had died and it appeared that this soldier was blatantly ignoring her. They want to think they are some sort of saviours. They don’t want to look at the innocent people they murdered. It makes me sick.
Yeah, it really is sickening. I feel so bad for the soldiers who are actually decent people, because they’ll get painted like the others in some eyes.