U.S. Troops kill & are killed in Baghdad

Two Iraqi's shot dead/gunmen kill GI in Baghdad
The Associated Press Wednesday, June 18, 2003

BAGHDAD Two assailants shot and killed an American soldier and wounded another guarding a propane gas station in Baghdad on Wednesday, and U.S. troops threatened by a stone-throwing crowd killed two Iraqis during a demonstration outside the headquarters of the occupation authorities, the military said.
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The gunmen approached the squad of troops at the station on foot and shot the soldiers from close range before fleeing on foot to a waiting getaway car about 100 meters away, according to witnesses quoted by Captain David Gercken, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.
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He was the second American killed this week in Baghdad, as attacks against the U.S.-led occupation forces mounted in tandem with the Americans' increasing crackdown on insurgents.
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The shooting came hours after two Iraqis were killed by American gunfire during a demonstration by former Iraqi Army soldiers seeking back wages. A military spokesman said that the violence had begun when protesters threw rocks at a convoy of military police vehicles moving toward the arched gateway of the Republican Palace, Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound, which is now the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration.
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Two wounded men were evacuated inside the compound for treatment at a military aid station, but both died of their wounds, an army spokesman said. Major John Washburn of the 1st Armored Division said that the convoy had come under a barrage of stones, and a soldier "on the vehicle fired shots and used deadly force."
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An Associated Press photographer who witnessed the incident said that the convoy, which had tried to edge through the crowd, had given up trying to enter the main gate and drove off to another entrance. He said the shooting came later in response to a few stones from demonstrators across the street.