Baghdad, Apr 16: The Commander of US-led forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks, entered Baghdad for the first time today after four weeks of war, while deadly violence flared in Mosul for the second day running. The shootings in the fractious northern city left four dead and came as us forces admitted they were responsible for shooting seven of the 15 people killed there on Tuesday.
US forces hailed the capture in Baghdad of Abu Abbas, the Palestinian who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, as proof that Saddam Hussein`s regime "harboured terrorists".
One week after Baghdad fell into US hands following three weeks of heavy bombing, a us central command spokesman said franks was "in Baghdad and he is meeting with his commanders".
Twelve-year-old Ali Ismail Abbas, who has come to symbolise the human cost of that bombing after losing both arms and suffering severe burns in a US missile strike that killed his parents, underwent surgery soon after arriving in Kuwait. Mosul, the oil-rich city populated by a fractious mix of Kurds and Arabs, demonstrated again the difficulties the US forces are experiencing in keeping the peace.
In today`s clashes, at least four people were killed and several others wounded by gunshots near government buildings, a hospital official said.
Several witnesses told that US troops fired on a crowd from the rooftops of the buildings, but a US Marine officer denied the charge.
Captain James Jarvis told "there was no firing on the crowd today".
Someone "started shooting on our Marines; we subsequently returned fire. We were engaged by two roof-top locations. We were fired upon and took well-aimed fire."
But US forces conceded their soldiers had shot and killed up to seven people in Mosul on Tuesday, when they returned fire on demonstrators who were hooting guns and hurling rocks.
"Fire was indeed delivered from coalition forces, it was lethal fire and some Iraqis were killed as a result, we think the number is in the order of seven and we think there were some wounded as well," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told journalists at US Central Command`s war base in Qatar.
US forces said they had achieved "yet another victory in the global war on terrorism" with the capture of Mohammad Abbas, known as Abu Abbas, who led the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro in which elderly, wheelchair-bound American, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot dead and thrown overboard.
Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front who was living in Iraq under the protection of Saddam, was seized when US troops stormed his hideout in southern Baghdad on Monday, US officials said.
His presence there proves the Iraqi regime supported terrorism, said Brooks.
"He was a terrorist and he remains a terrorist," he said. "But more importantly, he was found in Baghdad and we`ve said for a long time that Baghdad and the Iraqi regime that no longer exists have harbored terrorists and provided safe haven for terrorists."
Abbas was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for his role in the hijacking.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat called for his immediate release, saying the arrest violated a 1995 peace accord but a US official said he was not covered by the agreement.
Stoking up its threats to Iraq`s neighbour Syria, Washington said a man suspected of plotting to kill former President George Bush in 1993 had been spotted in Damascus.
A US official in Washington said Faruq Hijazi, a suspected high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer, had reached Syria from Tunisia, apparently to seek refuge after Saddam`s regime was toppled.
Washington believes he played a key role in an alleged plot to assassinate Bush senior during a visit to Kuwait, which was freed from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf war.
President George W. Bush had used the alleged plot to justify going to war, referring last year to Saddam as "the guy who tried to kill my dad."
US officials have claimed that "at least a handful" of former members of the Iraqi elite are currently in Syria.
Damascus denied the accusations.
"Allegations of Syria providing refuge to some symbols of the Iraqi regime are absolutely groundless," said foreign ministry official Bussaina Shaaban, adding: "Syria never had good relations with the Iraqi regime."
US forces shut off a pipeline to Syria which they said was transporting oil in violation of UN sanctions, in the latest attempt to intimidate a country it fears could jeopardise its efforts to rebuild Iraq.
US secretary of State Colin Powell tried Tuesday to ease Arab and Muslim fears that the united states planed to invade Iran or Syria after Iraq.


An increasing number of Baghdad`s five million people returned to work after a week of frenzied looting since US forces entered the city.
The main emphasis was on repairing the electricity, water and other vital utilities knocked out in the final days of the US air campaign.
"The priority among priorities is electricity," said Osama Zubeidi, an electrical engineer who offered his services to US forces.
US Marines officially established a civil-military centre in Baghdad to direct operations for restoring the essential services and providing health care.
"US Marines are working diligently to minimize the unrest within the city of Baghdad by helping to restore water and electricity and providing humanitarian aid, medical treatment and other basic needs," a US statement said.
But a "message to the citizens of Baghdad" distributed in English and handwritten Arabic also imposed a de facto curfew, advising Iraqis to stay off the streets between evening and morning prayers.
Bureau Report