US Troops Clash With Rioters in Baghdad

AMERICAN troops clashed with rioters carrying Saddam Hussein’s picture in Baghdad yesterday and heavy smoke billowed from the mayor’s office in a city west of the capital following a big explosion.

In northern Iraq, American troops sealed off the village where Saddam was born and began issuing identity cards to the villagers to determine who can move in and out.

There were conflicting claims about what triggered the clash at Abu Ghraib, a suburb on the western side of the capital.

Iraqis said it broke out when US troops tried to clear market stalls from a main road. But an American officer at the scene, first Lieutenant Joseph Harrison, said it began with a grenade attack against American soldiers that left two of them wounded.

Youths began throwing stones at troops and Iraqi police and set tyres ablaze. Protesters carried Saddam’s picture and shouted “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is great”.

After a three-hour interlude, gunfire erupted again as helicopters hovered overhead and US armoured vehicles moved into the area to control the crowd after hundreds of Iraqis emerged from Friday prayers.

Machinegun fire and 10 explosions were heard, and fleeing civilians said the US troops had “come under attack”.

A photographer on the scene saw several civilian casualties being evacuated. Within a half hour the gunshots subsided. Later, mortars fell on an Iraqi police station near the market. The Americans said they arrested two Iraqis carrying a mortar firing tube.

In Fallujah, a centre of Sunni Muslim resistance 40 miles west of the capital, a strong explosion rocked the centre of the city at midday. Heavy, black smoke could be seen billowing from the mayor’s office.

Police said that following the explosion, residents shouted at the authorities that their neighbourhood had become a target because the US-appointed mayor and other officials worked there. Civil defence officer Ahmed Khalil said police shot and killed a resident during the ensuing argument.

Later, residents angered by the police action broke into the smouldering building and looted the mayor’s office. They eventually dispersed when US Humvees arrived with helicopters patrolling overhead.

An upsurge of attacks this week, coinciding with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has killed scores of people, most of them Iraqis in a series of vehicle bombings in Baghdad on Monday. The upsurge prompted the international Red Cross and the UN to remove foreign staff temporarily.

American officials have variously blamed the violence on Saddam loyalists and Islamic extremists. The New York Times reported yesterday that three senior American officials believe Saddam is actively planning and co-ordinating some of the attacks.

Defence, intelligence and national security officials sought to minimise that possibility yesterday, however. Discussing the situation only on grounds of anonymity, they said some Iraqis have been asserting for several months that Saddam is involved.

But these officials said they are not certain how reliable the information is and said there are no radio intercepts or other types of evidence to corroborate the reports.

American soldiers moved before dawn yesterday to seal off Uja, the village where Saddam was born, surrounding it with razor wire and setting up checkpoints at the exits. They ordered all adults to register for identity cards in the village about 95 miles north of the capital.

“This is an effort to protect the majority of the population, the people who want to get on with their lives,” said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, a battalion commander in the fourth Infantry Division. The village is the family home of many former Ba’athist regime members.