Millions of Iraqi workers, laborers, soldiers and employees have suddenly found themselves unemployed

BASRA, June 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As hundreds of unemployed Iraqis demonstrated in the southern capital of Basra against the employment of Asian oil workers by U.S. companies, an American soldier was killed in a fresh attack on the occupation forces in the war-torn country.

The Democratic Workers Union in Basra slammed the employment of Asian workers by Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), at a time Iraqis face massive unemployment following the collapse of public services as well as disbanding of the army and security forces, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"No to foreign workers at the expense of our workers," one banner outside the headquarters of British forces in the city said.

"It's our country and it's up to us to rebuild it," chanted the protestors, as the first Asian workers, particularly Indian, have been spotted here, employed by Kuwait's Al-Khorafi company which has been sub-contracted by KBR to renovate a pipeline.

The U.S. army gave KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co, an oil firm headed by Vice President Dick Cheney until 2000 - the main contract to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq.

Indian media reports said U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani met in a Washington hotel on Sunday to discuss the possible use of Indian forces in Iraq.

Iraqis have staged several massive demonstrations against the U.S. decision to dissolve miniseries of defense and information and armed forces, leaving thousands of people jobless.

Fresh U.S. Casualty

Iraqis protest the employment of Asian workers by oil companies at a time the country suffers high unemployment rates

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said in a statement that one of its soldiers were killed by small arms fire while manning a traffic control checkpoint at al Qaim on the Syrian border, the latest in a spate of attacks on U.S. soldiers following the U.S.-led invasion against Iraq.

A number of Iraqis stopped their vehicle at the checkpoint and asked for help for a man they claimed was ill. Two persons showed out and opened their pistols and shot the soldier.

The troops returned fire, killing one of the attackers and capturing another, said the statement.

But at least one other assailant sped off in the vehicle, sparking a manhunt by U.S. occupation forces overnight in the town.

The U.S. death brought to 29 the number of American servicemen who have died in fighting or accidents in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared the war effectively over on May 1.

Two months after the fall of Baghdad, the death toll among occupying U.S. troops is mounting from Iraqi attacks that have become a daily occurrence despite American insistence they are isolated incidents.

The situation remained tense as a debate intensified over the failure of U.S.-led occupation forces to find the weapons of mass destruction that Washington used to justify the invasion.

U.S. commanders had already said the attacks were obliging them to rethink their timetable for rotating out some of the 147,000 American troops that are in Iraq along with 15,000 British soldiers.

In another incident, Centcom said Monday that U.S. troops had detained two Iraqis after coming under fire in the restive western town of Fallujah. An Iraqi gunship owner was killed unprovoked by American gunfire in the town on Sunday.

Attacks on U.S. troops have been frequent in the flashpoint town 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, where anti-American sentiments are on the rise since 19 people were killed by the U.S. gunfire during protests calling for an end to occupation in April 2003.

Local residents in Falluja are further furious over the U.S. military practices, including house-to-house searches and the frisking of women as well as flouting Islamic moral codes in the conservative Muslim Sunni city.