Fallujah (Iraq), May 01: Seven US soldiers were wounded when two unidentified men lobbed two grenades over the wall of their offices here early today, a US officer said. Six soldiers were moderately wounded and a seventh sustained "very light" injuries from the blasts at 1:00 am (0230 IST), said Captain Frank Rosenblatt, an intelligence officer with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Two Humvee vehicles were damaged in the attack on the US troops' offices, set up in what used to be the local headquarters of the former ruling Ba’ath Party in an area of central Fallujah where 16 people were shot dead by US troops this week. Three Iraqis were killed and two left in critical condition yesterday, a local doctor said, when US troops opened fire on an angry crowd of residents protesting the US presence in Fallujah, about 50 km west of Baghdad, after 13 people were shot dead in a similar incident Monday night.
Rosenblatt said yesterday's shootings occurred after soldiers thought the protesters, who were throwing rocks and slippers, were hurling grenades. About Monday's incident, Rosenblatt said US troops had identified 25 men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles in the area and managed to confiscate several automatic weapons.
Rosenblatt said the US army in the town was now in new negotiations with local authorities, but soldiers would still "do what they have to do to defend themselves." Bureau Report