Five civilians die as troops open fire

AT LEAST five Iraqi civilians were reportedly killed by coalition forces yesterday as large demonstrations took place in several parts of the country.

Witnesses said United States forces killed four civilians in the town of Fallujah after coming under rocket fire on a day of an angry protest against the detention of a young woman.

In the southern Shiite city of Kut, Ukranian troops opened fire to disperse a crowd demanding jobs, killing a man. It was also revealed that two Iraqi civilians were killed on Monday at a US checkpoint in Baghdad.

The trouble in Fallujah began when hundreds of Iraqis protested in the streets, shouting "Bush, you coward", after US troops detained a 17-year-old woman while searching for a Saddam Hussein loyalist. The woman, who relatives acknowledged was handled only by female soldiers, was released after several hours of questioning.

However, speakers at the rally said the woman was alone at home at the time and that her arrest was an insult.

"Is it sensible that a great nation (the US) storms houses where there are only women and children?" asked one speaker. "This woman represents the honour of the people of Fallujah."

Maher Turki, the woman’s brother-in-law, said the soldiers were looking for another of his brothers in the hope he would lead them to Khamis Sarhan, the leader of Saddam’s Baath party in Fallujah. Mr Sarhan is wanted by occupation forces and has a $1 million (541,600) bounty on his head.

Mr Turki said his brother, who has fled, was acquainted with Mr Sarhan but was not an associate. Mr Turki said the troops were not looking for the detained woman’s husband.

He refused to identify his sister-in-law, saying she was recovering in hospital from the shock of custody.

"But in all honesty, she was treated well. They only had women soldiers deal with her. They did not harm her. They didn’t touch one hair on her head," he said.

The demonstration passed off peacefully, but later a US foot patrol opened fire after coming under rocket attack, killing at least four civilians including an elderly woman, witnesses said.

"Two rockets were fired at them," said Khalas Ahmed, a 15-year-old boy selling cigarettes from a nearby kiosk. "The Americans started firing back. The bullets hit my kiosk and I dived to the ground."

The woman who was killed was on a balcony of a nearby house.

At the same time, a passing car was caught in a hail of bullets which killed all three men inside, other witnesses said.

A US military spokeswoman in Baghdad said she had no immediate information on the incident.

Clashes resumed yesterday in Kut between protesters and Ukrainian troops, with sporadic gunfire heard at the western edge of the city, a day after the Ukrainians fired bullets in the air to control a riot by hundreds of people demanding food and jobs.

One man was killed and two other people, including one woman, were injured by gunfire, hospital officials said.

On Monday, demonstrators hurled explosives , injuring one Ukrainian soldier and four Iraqi policemen, said Lieutenant Zafer Wedad, an Iraqi police official.

The violence in Kut, 90 miles south-east of Baghdad, followed similar disturbances in another southern city, Amarah, on Saturday and Sunday in which six demonstrators were killed by Iraqi police and British soldiers.

Although attacks against coalition forces are on the decline, there seems to have been little slowdown in the number of civilian deaths.

In addition to the five reportedly killed yesterday it was also revealed that two civilians - including a ten-year-old boy - were killed at a Baghdad checkpoint on Monday.

A roadside bomb went off near the checkpoint, hitting a US Humvee and killing a soldier. Soldiers in another Humvee started shooting, hitting a car carrying the civilian family, said Wijdan Wahab, aunt of the slain boy.

The boy, Mustafa Shaikhly, and the family driver, identified only as Haider, were killed, Ms Wahab said. Mustafa’s 30-year-old mother and another aunt were seriously wounded, she said. Also in the car were an eight-year-old boy and six-year-old girl, who suffered minor cuts.

"The Americans have ruined an innocent family, children and women," Ms Wahab said, distraught and weeping at the hospital.

"They didn’t even bother to look back at them after shooting them."

The US military did not confirm any of the civilian casualties. The soldier who died in the bomb blast was the 495th American killed in Iraq.

The military is also investigating another apparent shooting of civilians by Americans - four Iraqi civilians, including a seven-year-old boy, killed in a taxi near Tikrit on 3 January.

Local commander Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell said on Tuesday it was "likely" they were shot by coalition forces.

He said a preliminary inquiry into the shooting has been completed and indicated the use of heavy calibre machine gun fire in the attack.

Crew escape injury in helicopter attack

A US Apache attack helicopter went down in Iraq yesterday after apparently being hit by hostile fire - the third aircraft lost this month in the volatile region west of Baghdad.

The AH-64 helicopter gun-ship from the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment crashed near the town of Habbaniyah, but the two crew members escaped injury, military spokesman Colonel William Darley said. "It was apparently downed by enemy fire," he added.

Despite the helicopter incident, the chief US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said yesterday attacks against coalition forces had declined markedly.

"In the last three or four weeks we’ve seen a rather dramatic reduction in the number of attacks on the coalition, they are down by about 50 per cent," he told US television.

"I think we have found since the arrest of Saddam [Hussein] a better way to go after the insurgency, more intelligence about who they are and, even more important, we are finding a lot of people coming over and providing us information, saying they want to work with the coalition."