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U.S.
troops killed an Iraqi teenager and wounded 4 others during
wedding celebrations
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FALLUJAH,
Iraq, September 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S.
occupation soldiers killed an Iraqi teenager and wounded four other
people when they opened fire at guests attending wedding celebrations
in Fallujah, further fanning the already anti-American
sentiments in this flashpoint town.
An
Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said American soldiers opened
fire when their convoy drove near a house where a wedding was under way
and shots were being fired in the air in celebration in Fallujah, 50
kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
Fourteen-year-old
Sufian Daoud was shot dead and four people, including two women, were
wounded, in the incident, which happened at 11:00 pm Wednesday,
September 17, witnesses also said.
The
wounded were transferred to hospital in the town. Two cars were also
damaged in the shooting.
The
trigger-happy American soldiers, apparently thinking they were the
target of the celebratory fire, shot in the direction of both the people
taking part in the wedding and passers-by.
A
U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said there was no immediate
information available on the report.
Witnesses
said Thursday, September 18, that dozens of people were milling in the
streets of Fallujah, where a funeral procession for Daoud was getting
underway and firing gun shots into the air as mourners marched by.
Cars
formed a convoy and the casket was passed along the shoulders of
mourners as the procession made its way towards a nearby cemetery,
passing well-armed angry residents.
U.S.
occupation forces regularly come under resistance attacks in Fallujah,
where unprovoked harassments
have gained the occupation forces much unpopularity among the residents.
On
Saturday, September 13, the U.S. military issued an ‘apology’ after
nine security guards from Fallujah were killed
the previous day when U.S. troops opened fire as the guards were chasing
thieves.
The
next day one American soldier was killed and another three were wounded
in Fallujah when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb.
The
area around Fallujah has earned a reputation, and been dubbed by locals
as the "triangle of death" for the occupation forces.
That
triangle links Fallujah, Khaldiyah and Ramadi, and the Habbaniyah Lake,
where attacks on U.S. convoys are frequent.
In
the town, flyers have sprouted warning drivers to stay away from U.S.
convoys.
"We
have warned drivers that we cannot be responsible for their lives if
they don't heed these warnings," a policemen, who asked not to be
named, told AFP recently.
Pipeline
Ablaze
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Iraqi
police officers gather outside coalition headquarters in Basra to
protest against the British forces' decision to sack the police
chief of the southern
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Meanwhile,
a fire has erupted at an oil pipeline 200 kilometers (125 miles) north
of Baghdad, the commander of U.S. ground forces said Thursday.
Lieutenant
General Ricardo Sanchez told a news conference the blaze broke out nine
kilometers (six miles) north of the oil hub of Baiji, but he could not
give any other details.
"There
was a pipeline fire," he said. "We have not established if it
was sabotage or not."
Witnesses
said vehicles of the Iraqi oil ministry had rushed to the scene.
The
pipeline linking the oil center of Kirkuk further to the north with the
Baiji refinery carries most of the oil that is exported to the Turkish
port of Ceyhan.
It
was last targeted on August 30 and officials said repairs would take
"a few weeks."
Basra
Police Chief Sacked
This
comes as some 200 police officers gathered Thursday outside
occupation forces headquarters in Basra to protest the British forces'
decision to sack the police chief of the southern Iraqi city.
The
officers threatened to resign if Khodeir Aqlu was not reinstated, an AFP
correspondent reported.
The
British forces who control the city have replaced Aqlu with Mohammad
Ali, a former city official under the now ousted regime of Saddam
Hussein.
