Ukrainian soldiers fired into the air to disperse hundreds of Iraqis who rioted for jobs and food as a second southern Shiite Muslim city was rocked by unrest -- a barometer of rising frustration with the US-led occupation in a region of Iraq considered friendly to the Americans.
Also Monday, a roadside bomb in the capital killed one American soldier and wounded two, officials said, bringing the US death toll in the Iraqi conflict to 495. Large explosions rocked central Baghdad later in the day, but officials reported no casualties.
PHOTO: AP
Trouble started in Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad, when about 400 protesters marched Monday for a third straight day on a government building to demand jobs. Someone in the crowd threw a grenade at police and Ukrainian soldiers guarding the building, injuring four Iraqi policemen and one Ukrainian, according to Lieutenant Zafer Wedad, an Iraqi police official.
The Ukrainians then fired into the air to disperse the crowd, injuring one protester, Wedad said. He said the demonstrators hurled bricks at the building and trashed a post office in the city.
In a similar protest in Amarah on Sunday, waves of protesters rushed British troops guarding the city hall before being pushed back. On Saturday, clashes in Amarah killed six protesters and wounded at least 11.
Unrest in the Shiite areas has spread as the country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has spoken out against the US-backed formula for transferring power to the Iraqis.
No details were available about the death of the American soldier in Baghdad. In the late Monday blasts, Iraqi and US security officials said at least two mortars exploded near the Baghdad Hotel in the center of the capital. At least one round exploded in the Tigris River and the other exploded on the river bank, US troops said. There were no casualties, the Americans said.
Also Monday, another roadside bomb exploded near a US Army convoy in Ramadi, a town west of Baghdad, but the military said no US casualties were reported. Residents said two Iraqis were killed when the Americans opened fire after the attack.
Meanwhile, acting on an Iraqi tip, US soldiers shot dead seven of the estimated 40 members of an armed gang allegedly trying to steal oil from a pipeline south of Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, the Army said Monday.
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