Unrest in Iraq Holy City, Anti-U.S. Attacks Go On

Sun July 27, 2003



KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops opened fire in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala on Sunday as stone-throwing Iraqis protested over Marines killing a man the day before.

A U.S. Marine officer told Reuters his men returned fire in self-defense on Sunday but did not know if anyone was hit. He said the man they shot dead on Saturday was carrying a weapon.

Doctors showed Reuters the body of a second man they said was shot dead on Sunday. In confused and angry scenes, Reuters journalists saw troops fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Elsewhere, Iraqi guerrillas killed a U.S. soldier in an overnight grenade attack south of Baghdad as the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons showed no sign of staunching bloodshed.

In a reminder that tensions are not restricted to Saddam's Sunni Muslim heartlands north and west of the capital, the Kerbala protesters said they were incensed by Saturday's killing because they believed those involved had been trying to keep the Americans out of the venerated Imam Hussein mosque.

"America is the enemy of God!" chanted dozens of mourners as they carried the coffin Haider al-Shihlawi, in his 20s, who doctors said was shot by troops in Kerbala on Sunday.

Any spread of conflict would be unwelcome to the Americans.

Five dead soldiers in 24 hours -- 10 since U.S. troops killed Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay on Tuesday -- brought the number killed by a largely unseen enemy to 49 since May 1, when President Bush told them major combat was over.