U.S. troops kill eight Iraqi civilians at roadblocks

Baghdad - U.S. troops edgy about suicide attacks killed an Iraqi civilian at a checkpoint on Tuesday, fueling Arab anger already roused by the roadblock deaths of seven women and children the previous day.

U.S. Marines shot dead an unarmed driver and badly wounded his passenger south of Baghdad, just hours after the previous deaths at a checkpoint near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

The deaths are another blow to U.S. and British hopes of convincing Iraqis to welcome an invasion whose stated goal is to oust President Saddam Hussein, not combat the population.

As the ground war became more tangled, new explosions hit Baghdad in the 13th day of a conflict that President Bush told Iraqis he would pursue "until your country is free."

Heavy air raids pummeled the capital's southern and western outskirts where Republican Guard units man defensive lines.

Huge blasts in central Baghdad overnight sent smoke billowing from a compound used by Saddam and his powerful son Qusay. Another explosion set off a fire at the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, headed by Saddam's eldest son Uday.

In the north, two U.S. planes struck at targets near the oil city of Kirkuk. Reuters correspondent Mike Collett-White, watching from Kurdish-held territory nearby, saw two columns of black smoke rise into the sky after the bombing runs.

"We are coming with a mighty force to end the rule of your oppressors," Bush declared in a speech aimed at Iraqis.

At ground level in the war zone, things were less clear-cut.

U.S. Marines said they fired on a pickup truck that sped toward them at a checkpoint near the southern town of Shatra.

Neither the driver nor his passenger was armed, Marines told Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire. "I thought it was a suicide bomb," said one of the Marines.

JANGLED NERVES

Troops have been nervous since a checkpoint suicide car bomb attack killed four U.S. soldiers near Najaf on Saturday.

Even in allied Kuwait, U.S. soldiers shot at a car which burst through a checkpoint and into a desert base near the Iraqi border after midnight. A man, who said he was an Kuwait army captain, was detained, sources at U.S. Camp Thunder said.

An Egyptian electrician drove his truck into a group of U.S. soldiers at another base in Kuwait on Sunday, injuring 15. Troops shot and wounded him but his motive was not clear.

On Monday, U.S. troops fired on a van which failed to stop at a desert checkpoint near Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, only to find it was full of women and children.

U.S. Central Command said seven of the 13 women and children in the van were killed and two wounded. But a Washington Post correspondent near the scene said 10 people were killed and suggested troops had fired without giving enough warning.

Marine Corps General Peter Pace said the soldiers who shot at the van "absolutely did the right thing," because they thought their lives were threatened.

The troops at Najaf are among U.S. forces fighting their way toward Baghdad against stronger than expected Iraqi resistance.

Central Command said a missile had been launched from south of Baghdad at the Najaf region. A U.S. Patriot anti-missile battery brought it down. A missile was also fired at Kuwait and was shot down by a Patriot over Iraq, Kuwaiti officials said.

LAND WAR

On Monday Reuters correspondents with U.S. military units said troops fought Iraqi soldiers around a Euphrates river bridge at Hindiya, just 50 miles from Baghdad -- the closest to the capital that ground fighting has been reported.

U.S. troops have also advanced to the outskirts of Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Iraq reported fierce fighting in and around the southern city of Nassiriya, saying the invaders had taken heavy losses.

"The blood of the enemy is flowing profusely," a military spokesman said on Iraqi television.

The United States has paid scant attention to the diplomatic fall-out from the Iraq war so far, but Secretary of State Colin Powell starts a hastily arranged trip to Europe this week.

He visits Turkey on Wednesday to try to patch up ties damaged by Washington's failed effort to persuade Ankara to let U.S. troops cross its territory to invade Iraq.

Powell will fly to Brussels on Thursday for talks with leaders of the European Union and NATO -- two groups that have been deeply divided over the war in Iraq.

America's top diplomat said he planned to discuss "how we can all work together to provide a better life" for the Iraqi people after "decades of devastation" under Saddam's rule.

But Greece, current EU president, signaled the talks might go beyond Powell's post-war reconstruction agenda. "If this is a move where the European voice is heard, then it should be a message of peace," the Greek foreign minister said.

The women and children killed at the checkpoint near Najaf were the first civilian deaths from U.S. shooting acknowledged by Central Command since the war began. But correspondents with U.S. units have reported other civilian deaths in gunfire.

Iraq says U.S. and British air and ground attacks have killed nearly 600 civilians and wounded more than 4,000.

Harrowing footage of civilian casualties broadcast by Arab satellite channels has fueled opposition to the war and sparked angry protests in the Muslim world and beyond.

The British Army admitted that the battle to win Iraqi hearts and minds could only be damaged by civilian killings, but backed to the hilt its troops' right to self defense.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal urged Saddam to make a "sacrifice for his country" and step down.

The United States says the invasion is to oust Saddam, liberate his people and rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons and none has yet been found by the 100,000 or more U.S. and British troops now in Iraq.

A Central Command official said the military was ready to pay a very high price to oust Saddam. "If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties."

The British military said another soldier had been killed in Iraq, bringing the British death toll to 26.

British forces have been fighting against forces loyal to Saddam in southeastern Iraq, around the second city of Basra.

U.S. forces have lost 51 killed and 14 missing.

World financial markets steadied after a day of turbulence partly caused by fears of a long war in Iraq. The dollar's fall slowed and stocks rose in Europe and Asia. Safe-haven gold and government bond prices eased. Oil was little changed.-- Reuters

Brudirect.com