US troops shot dead atleast 13 Iraqis and wounded 75 when protesters marched on a school the soldiers have occupied and demanded they get out of Iraq, doctors and witnesses said on Tuesday.Residents said the troops shot at unarmed protesters but the US military said its soldiers had merely retaliated after coming under fire when the crowd of about 200 people approached the school in Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad.A company — 100 or so soldiers — from the 82nd Airborne Division were using the school as a barracks, officers said.‘‘They are stealing our oil and they are slaughtering our people,’’ said Shuker Abdullah Hamid, a cousin of one of the victims, venting the fury felt by many residents. US helicopters hovered overhead as angry mourners buried the dead today. The white walls of houses near the school were pock-marked by bullets, bullet-riddled and wrecked cars stood by the roadside and traces of blood marked the ground.Soldiers inside the school, braced for trouble from Saddam loyalists on the dictator’s birthday, seemed to have unleashed a hail of heavy fire on the crowd in the darkened street outside in response to what officers said was incoming rifle fire.‘‘Our soul and our blood we will sacrifice to you martyrs,’’ hundreds of mourners chanted as they carried at least four simple wooden coffins shoulder-high through the town.Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, Director of Falluja General Hospital, said at least 13 people had been killed. His staff had treated 75 wounded, mostly hit by bullets or shrapnel.‘‘Now, all preachers of Falluja mosques and all youths. are organising martyr operations against the American occupiers,’’ said a man cloaked in white, using the term often used to describe suicide attacks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.There have been a few isolated suicide attacks at military checkpoints, and US troops killed at least seven Iraqis during a violent demonstration in the northern city of Mosul on April 15. But most anti-American protests have ended peacefully.US Central Command in Qatar said soldiers in Falluja had shot at gunmen who fired at them with AK-47 assault rifles. ‘‘The unit exercised its inherent right to self-defence and returned fire,’’ war headquarters said in statement. It said troops were fired on by around 25 armed civilians among the crowd of protesters. ‘‘The crowd retrieved the wounded and dispersed after the exchange,’’ Central Command said. ‘‘Given this fact, it is extremely unlikely that the coalition will ever be able to confirm casualties, or determine the extent to which any unarmed civilians were injured or killed.’’ Lieutenant Christopher Hart of the 82nd Airborne Division, whose unit is occupying the school, said troops used smoke to try to disperse the chanting crowd. They opened fire only when two men carrying AK-47s suddenly came from behind the crowd on a motorcycle and started shooting at the school, he said. ‘‘They had AK-47s and, as they drove by, they opened up on the near side of this building here,’’ he said, pointing to a corner of the school where some windows were smashed. There was little other obvious sign of damage to the school. Hart said some people in the crowd also fired at the troops. Lieutenant Colonel Eric Nantz, speaking at the school, said his men had been on the lookout for trouble from diehard Saddam supporters as Monday was the vanished dictator’s 66th birthday. What Nantz described as ‘‘celebratory firing’’ accompanied a crowd which was first dispersed from outside a US base in the centre of town by an American show of force. When the crowd reformed at the school, however, shots were aimed at the troops. ‘‘There were a lot of people who were armed and who were throwing rocks. How is a US soldier to tell the difference between a rock and a grenade?’’ Nantz said. A local Sunni Muslim cleric, Kamal Shaker Mahmoud, said the protesters had asked the troops to leave the school so that lessons could resume there now the war is over. ‘‘It was a peaceful demonstration. They did not have any weapons,’’ he said. ‘‘We are asking the Americans to leave Iraq.’’ Murhij Rashid, 52, pointed to a grave where gravediggers were throwing dry earth on top and kicking up dust. His 18-year-old son Hussein had just been buried. ‘‘There was a demonstration but he did not have any weapon,’’ he said.Some residents said some of the dead may not have been taking part in the protest. Salah Abdullah Hamid said his 36-year-old cousin was an innocent bystander. Reuters
