Iraq: US soldiers shot dead five Iraqis and wounded three others yesterday in Falluja, a town 50 kilometres west of Baghdad.
Relatives and hospital officials said the soldiers opened fire on a truck coming back from a chicken farm near the town.
A US military spokesman in the town said troops had shot and killed five "enemy militants" after coming under attack on the outskirts of the town on Tuesday night. He did not say if it was the same five people from the farm.
Relatives said the truck was fired at near a checkpoint on Tuesday evening, and hospital officials said five bodies had been brought in with gunshot wounds.
Emotions ran high after the deaths, with scores of relatives and others converging on the hospital where the bodies were taken to in Falluja.
"There is nothing good about the occupation forces, they are attacking the innocents and children," screamed one man, Mohammad Abed Fayad. "Their blood won't be spilled for nothing."
Many Iraqis accuse US troops of being too hasty to open fire and say hundreds of innocent Iraqis have been killed. The US army says it does not keep a tally of civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the US military said a succession of blasts heard in Baghdad last night were part of an operation against guerrillas responsible for attacks on US forces. A US military spokesman said the operation was against a known facility used as a meeting, planning and rendezvous point for guerrillas.
"Its destruction will deny enemy forces use of it in the future," he said. - (Reuters)