Troops kill 13 Iraqis

2004-04-07 21:12

Kirkuk - Thirteen Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded in an exchange of fire involving US troops during a protest near this northern city against US attacks in the hotbed town of Fallujah, police said.

Meanwhile, clashes broke out late on Wednesday near a US army base west of Kirkuk, Major General Torhan Yusef, head of the police forces in the district, said.

Two Katyusha rockets were also fired on the US army base, the city's former airport, he said.

Yusef said "the final toll of the clashes during the demonstrations was put by hospitals at 13 killed and 20 wounded."

Awad Khalaf al-Juburi, police chief in Hawija, 50km west of Kirkuk, said there had been a demonstration by about 1 500 people to denounce what they called the massacres committed by the US army in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

At the end of the protest, "some of them started firing at the American soldiers, who fired back."

No comment on the reports was available from the US military.

US marines were locked in fierce fighting on Wednesday with Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, as part of "Operation Vigilant Resolve" aimed at flushing out insurgents who killed four American contractors there last week.

- AFP