At least eight Iraqis were shot dead Wednesday and 12 wounded in an exchange of gunfire with US occupation forces during a demonstration west of Kirkuk to protest US raids on Fallujah, police and medics said.
Awad Khalaf al-Juburi, police chief in Hawija, some 50 kilometers west of Kirkuk, said there had been a demonstration by about 1500 persons to denounce what they called the massacres committed by the American troops in Fallujah.
US marines were engaged in fierce fighting Wednesday with resistance fighters in Fallujah.
Elsewhere, a U.S. military helicopter crashed Wednesday and was seen burning in the central Iraqi city of Baqouba, where Shiite militiamen and American troops were also fighting, The AP reported.
The crash came immediately after an explosion was heard. The helicopter was seen in flames in a field near a residential neighborhood. U.S. troops closed off the site.
U.S. troops and Shiite fighters clashed Wednesday in Baqouba, some 50 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. During the fighting, the Shiites attacked the governor's offices with rocket-propelled grenades, The AP added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
