US soldiers return fire from Iraqi protest; 13 dead

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers fired on protesters in a town near Baghdad after the troops took automatic weapons fire, U.S. officers said Tuesday. A hospital director said 13 Iraqis were killed and 75 wounded.\nThe shooting Monday night was in the town of Fallujah, about 30 miles west of Baghdad and an area where support for Saddam was strong. Col. Arnold Bray of the 82nd Airborne Division said at least seven Iraqis were hit by gunfire but neither he nor U.S. Central Command had definitive casualty figures.\n"There was fire directly over the heads of soldiers on the roof. They returned fire in order to protect the lives of our soldiers," said Lt. Col. Eric Nantz.\nIraqis interviewed at the hospital insisted the demonstration was peaceful and no one was armed or throwing rocks. One wounded 18-year-old man, Aqil Khaleil, said U.S. soldiers fired without warning.\nDr. Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, director of Fallujah General Hospital, said 13 people were killed, including three boys no older than 10. He said his medical crews were shot at when they went to retrieve the injured.\nIt was the third reported fatal shooting involving U.S. troops and Iraqi protesters in two weeks, underscoring the problems facing soldiers whose training focuses more on combat than crowd control.\nMarines opened fire during angry demonstrations April 15 and 16 in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqis said 10 people were killed in the two confrontations, although details remained unclear and the Marines insisted they only fired at people who shot at them.\nHowever, the incidents, widely reported by Arab news media, have served to fuel growing resentment of the U.S. military presence here only weeks after the overthrow of Saddam's regime.\nThe U.S. troops in Fallujah were headquartered in a schoolhouse, and some of the protesters fired at the building, Bray said.\nThe crowd of about 200 demonstrators reportedly was objecting to the presence of U.S. troops. Some townspeople, however, said the protest was held by students ages five to 20 to ask the soldiers to leave the school so classes could resume Tuesday as scheduled.\nAlso Tuesday, two more top officials of Saddam Hussein's regime -- the former head of Iraq's top-secret missile program and the former governor of Basra province -- were reported in custody.\nU.S. officials said Amer Mohammed Rashid, known to U.N. weapons inspectors as "Missile Man," surrendered Monday. He was ranked 47th on the U.S. most-wanted list of 55 members of Saddam's inner circle.\nWalid Hamed Tawfiq al-Tikriti, the former governor and a member of Saddam's clan, surrendered to the Iraqi National Congress, according to Haidar al-Moussawi, a London-based spokesman for the anti-Saddam group. U.S. military officials said they could not comment.\nAl-Tikriti, who surrendered in Baghdad, was 44th on the U.S. most-wanted list of officials of Saddam's regime -- eight of clubs in the U.S. deck of cards. He was being interrogated Tuesday night by U.S. forces and Iraqi National Congress representatives, al-Moussawi said. \n"They will decide in the field" when to hand him over to U.S. custody, al-Moussawi said.\nRashid is a former general who oversaw Iraq's top-secret missile programs. He is married to Dr. Rihab Taha, a microbiologist known as "Dr. Germ" who was in charge of the secret Iraqi facility that weaponized anthrax and other toxic substances. Her Baghdad house was raided by U.S. forces last month, but there was no word on her whereabouts.\nRashid was a member of Saddam's Military Industrialization Organization, the group responsible for producing Iraq's most lethal weapons.\nChief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said last month that Rashid and his wife would be among "the most interesting persons" for American investigators to interrogate because of their familiarity with a range of Saddam's secret weapons programs.