Entered into the database on Wednesday, June 29th, 2005 @ 10:22:57 MST
SAMAWA, Iraq (Reuters) - Police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the
southern Iraqi city of Samawa on Tuesday wounding seven protesters, including
one man who was shot in the head, witnesses and hospital staff said. Four policemen were also injured by stones, doctors said. Nearly 2,000 unemployed Iraqis were demonstrating in central Samawa because
they had not been given jobs in the police in Samawa, 270 km (170 miles) south
of Baghdad. Protesters threw stones and police opened fire, first with warning shots and then
shots aimed into the crowd, Reuters reporter Hamid Fadhil said from the scene. Reuters photographer Mohammed Amin said he saw four demonstrators wounded,
one of them hit by a bullet to the head. Raad Selim, a doctor at Samawa's main hospital, said that man was one of two
fighting for his life. A further five civilians had gunshot wounds. Of the four policemen hit by stones, two were in a serious condition, Selim
said. Two ambulances were badly damaged by the stone-throwing protesters. Foreign troops, apparently from British or Australian units which operate in
the area of southern Iraq, observed the violence from the roof of a local authority
building. There was no sign of Japanese troops, 550 of whom operate from a base in Samawa,
conducting civil reconstruction work.
