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05/01/03 (Daily
Mirror) IT started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a
US jeep - it ended with two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously
injured.
I watched in horror
as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000 unarmed
people here yesterday.
Many, including
children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of automatic
gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13
protesters at the Al-Kaahd school on Monday.
They had been whipped
into a frenzy by religious leaders. The crowd were facing down
a military compound of tanks and machine-gun posts.
The youngster had
apparently lobbed his shoe at the jeep - with a M2 heavy
machine gun post on the back - as it drove past in a convoy of
other vehicles.
A soldier operating
the weapon suddenly ducked, raised it on its pivot then
pressed his thumb on the trigger.
Mirror photographer
Julian Andrews and I were standing about six feet from the
vehicle when the first shots rang out, without warning.
We dived for cover
under the compound wall as troops within the crowd opened
fire. The convoy accelerated away from the scene.
Iraqis in the line of
fire dived for cover, hugging the dust to escape being hit.
We could hear the
bullets screaming over our heads. Explosions of sand erupted
from the ground - if the rounds failed to hit a demonstrator
first. Seconds later the shooting stopped and the screaming
and wailing began.
One of the dead, a
young man, lay face up, half his head missing, first black
blood, then red spilling into the dirt.
His friends screamed
at us in anger, then looked at the grim sight in disbelief.
A boy of 11 lay
shouting in agony before being carted off in a car to a
hospital already jam-packed with Iraqis hurt in Monday's
incident.
Cars pulled up like
taxis to take the dead and injured to hospital, as if they had
been waiting for this to happen.
A man dressed like a
sheik took off his headcloth to wave and direct traffic around
the injured. The sickening scenes of death and pain were the
culmination of a day of tension in Al-Fallujah sparked by
Monday's killings.
The baying crowd had
marched 500 yards from the school to a local Ba'ath party HQ.
We joined them, asking questions and taking pictures, as
Apache helicopters circled above.
The crowd waved their
fists at the gunships angrily and shouted: "Go home
America, go home America."
We rounded a corner
and saw edgy-looking soldiers lined up along the street in
between a dozen armoured vehicles. All of them had automatic
weapons pointing in the firing position.
As the crowd - 10
deep and about 100 yards long - marched towards the US
positions, chanting "Allah is great, go home
Americans", the troops reversed into the compound.
On the roof of the
two-storey fortress, ringed by a seven-foot high brick wall,
razor wire and with several tanks inside, around 20 soldiers
ran to the edge and took up positions.
A machine gun post at
one of the corners swivelled round, taking aim at the crowd
which pulled to a halt.
We heard no warning
to disperse and saw no guns or knives among the Iraqis whose
religious and tribal leaders kept shouting through loud
hailers to remain peaceful. In the baking heat and with the
deafening noise of helicopters the tension reached breaking
point.
Julian and I ran
towards the compound to get away from the crowd as dozens of
troops started taking aim at them, others peering at them
through binoculars.
Tribal leaders
struggled to contain the mob which was reaching a frenzy.
A dozen ran through
the cordon of elders, several hurling what appeared to be
rocks at troops.
Some of the stones
just reached the compound walls. Many threw sandals - a
popular Iraqi insult.
A convoy of Bradley
military jeeps passed by, the Iraqis hurling insults at them,
slapping the sides of the vehicles with their sandals, tribal
leaders begging them to retreat.
The main body of
demonstrators jeered the passing US troops pointing their
thumbs down to mock them.
Then came the gunfire
- and the death and the agony.
After the shootings
the American soldiers looked at the appalling scene through
their binoculars and set up new positions, still training
their guns at us.
An angry mob battered
an Arab TV crew van, pulling out recording equipment and
hurling it at the compound. Those left standing - now
apparently insane with anger - ran at the fortress battering
its walls with their fists. Many had tears pouring down their
faces.
Still no shots from
the Iraqis and still no sign of the man with the AK47 who the
US later claimed had let off a shot at the convoy.
I counted at least
four or five soldiers with binoculars staring at the crowd for
weapons but we saw no guns amongst the injured or dropped on
the ground.
A local told us the
crowd would turn on foreigners so we left and went to the
hospital.
There, half an hour
later, another chanting mob was carrying an open coffin of one
of the dead, chanting "Islam, Islam, Islam, death to the
Americans".
We left when we were
spat at by a wailing woman dressed in black robes.
US troops had been
accused of a bloody massacre over the killings of the 13
Iraqis outside the school on Monday. Three of the dead were
said to be boys under 11.
At least 75 locals
were injured in a 30-minute gun battle after soldiers claimed
they were shot at by protesters.
Demonstrators claimed
they were trying to reclaim the school from the Americans who
had occupied it as a military HQ.
The crowd had defied
a night-time curfew to carry out the protest. |
