US troops stoned by jobless Iraqi officers

LARGE sections of Baghdad were in turmoil yesterday as former Iraqi intelligence officers demanding jobs hurled stones and charged American forces guarding occupation headquarters.

The foreign ministry compound was damaged in an explosion, but no one was injured.

The ex-intelligence officers hurled pavement stones outside occupation headquarters, prompting American reinforcements to move forward from the compound towards the protesters, who then scattered. No shots were fired and the Americans pulled back.

Throughout the day, small groups of protesters milled around the entrance but did not threaten the soldiers.

About half a mile away, an explosion at the foreign ministry blew a crater about a foot in diameter in a car park, said US Army Major John Frisbie. Some shrubbery was damaged, but no one was wounded, he said, adding there was no sign of a mortar attack.

But Hussein Amin, a witness, said a mortar shell or rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the ministry compound and broke windows.

Workers in the compound came streaming out. Iraqi guards fired rifles in the air shortly after the mid-morning blast.

Across the city, US solders were met with a demonstration by more than 6,000 Shi'ite Muslims after closing a mosque and allegedly arresting the imam. Late in the afternoon, US troops fired concussion grenades and shots in the air to disperse the crowd, which grew by the hour.

By nightfall, about 200 American troops backed by helicopters and tanks had sealed off the area, and more Americans and Iraqi protesters converged on the scene.

As the midnight curfew approached, however, the standoff eased, with the Americans pulling back most of their forces. Shortly afterwards, the protesters began leaving the area, too.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the deadlock over a US-proposed resolution mapping out Iraq's future remained, with US Ambassador John Negroponte signalling that any final changes to the draft would not be significant despite some UN Security Council members' opposition.

Washington welcomed a decision by Turkey's parliament allowing the government to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, but members of Iraq's interim council immediately opposed the move, a sign of the difficulties Washington faces as it tries to put together a peacekeeping force for Iraq.

The Security Council is divided over the timetable for transferring power to Iraqis and the UN role in stabilising and rebuilding the country.