14 Iraqis dead after anti-US demonstration

Gunmen opened fire on the Spanish garrison near the holy city of Najaf today during a huge demonstration by followers of an anti-US Shi’ite Muslim cleric. Four Salvadoran soldiers and at least 14 Iraqis died, and more than 130 people were wounded.

Two US Marines died in violence in Anbar province, bringing to 600 the number of Americans killed in the war. Anbar is an enormous stretch of land reaching to the Jordanian and Syrian borders west of Baghdad that includes Fallujah, a city where four American civilians were slain on Wednesday.