Demonstrators attacked, two dead

UNIDENTIFIED gunmen today killed two people and wounded five others who were taking part in what appeared to be a peaceful demonstration supporting radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Kufa, northeast of Najaf witnesses and hospital officials said.

Soon after the incident three mortars, apparently targeting a police checkpoint, hit a civilian area in Kufa, killing two civilians, including an eight-year-old boy, and wounding four others, witnesses and hospital officials said.

In the earlier violence, video footage from Associated Press Television News showed demonstrators wounded during a few minutes of heavy gunfire. It was unclear from the footage who was shooting.

Mohammed Abdul Kadhim, an employee at Kufa’s Furat al-Awsat Hospital, said two marchers were killed and five wounded.

The marchers chanted slogans in support of Sadr and carried pictures of the cleric as well as pictures of Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, the country’s top Shiite leader.

APTN footage showed wounded men being carried away, and one man lying motionless in an ambulance as medics rubbed his chest.

Witnesses said the gunfire appeared to come from an Iraqi National Guard post, which sat behind concrete blast walls along the route. The automatic weapons fire sent the marchers into a panic, with many scurrying for safety and yelling angrily. No one in the crowd could be seen firing a weapon, and it was unclear whether the incident was a gunbattle or an unprovoked attack on the demonstration.

Earlier, Najaf Governor Adnan al-Zurufi said Iraqi security forces had "taken all needed measures to prevent any crowds from entering the province", calling it a "military area".

The demonstration by hundreds of apparently unarmed Sadr supporters was headed to Najaf from the neighbouring city of Kufa, with plans to break the US-led siege there, witnesses said.

The demonstrators’ chants praised Sadr and condemned interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

"Allawi you are a coward. You are an American collaborator," the demonstrators chanted.

A US military spokesman had no information on the incident.

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