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Security forces in Iraq
shot dead four people protesting against a recent
hike in fuel prices Sunday, police said, after
rioters set cars and petrol stations on fire near
the northern oil Kurdish city of Kirkuk.
Iraq, which has the world's third biggest oil
reserves, is grappling with its latest fuel crisis
and price rises imposed by a deal with the
International Monetary Fund; longer than usual
queues have built up at petrol stations and many who
voted in last month's peaceful election talk of
disillusion.
Iraq slapped a curfew on the northern Iraqi Kurdish
city of Kirkuk (Kurdistan) after the riots.
The curfew was to come into force at 6 p.m. and
remain in place until 6 a.m. Monday, police said.
The violence erupted as a delegation from the main
Sunni Arab National Accordance Front was to meet
Sunday with senior Kurdish officials, possibly
holding preliminary discussion about the formation
of a coalition government after final election
results are released later this week.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was also to meet
in (Kurdistan) northern Erbil with Kurdish regional
President Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish
Democratic Party. It was unclear if a three-way
meeting could be held in Erbil, the Kurdish region's
administrative capital.
In Rahinawa, near Kirkuk, security forces opened
fire on young men as they marched down a main street
protesting a lack of basic amenities and the
doubling and tripling of prices for vehicle fuel and
household gas 13 days ago, police said.
At least four protesters were killed and two
wounded, Police Captain Salaam Zangana said. Police
said it was unclear whether U.S. or Iraqi forces
fired.
A spokesman for U.S. forces said U.S. troops wounded
only one person in a car at a checkpoint and said
there were no other gunshot casualties in the
hospital.
The protesters set fire to an office building
belonging to Iraq's North Oil Company, a police
colonel said. Four cars and two petrol stations were
also set ablaze.
The protest was the latest in a wave of
demonstrations against the fuel price hike across
the country - an increase that heralds cuts in huge
subsidies that are planned as part of an IMF
economic reform and aid package signed last month.
In what appeared to be yet another attack on an oil
facility, a bomb exploded near the big Dora refinery
in southern Baghdad but only succeeded in setting a
pipeline connected to a power plant on fire.
The explosion followed eight other bomb blasts that
greeted Baghdad residents New Year's morning. Two
blasts went off near restaurants in eastern Baghdad
and another two targeted police patrols. At least
two explosions stemmed from car bombs.
Just hours before, the night sky over Baghdad lit up
with red tracer bullets and sparkling fireworks as
residents celebrated New Year's Eve.
Meanwhile, a 10-member delegation headed by two of
Accordance Front's three leaders: Adnan al-Dulaimi,
leader of the General Conference of the Iraqi
People, and Tarek al-Hashimi, head of the Iraqi
Islamic Party, were headed to Iraq's northern
Kurdish region (Kurdistan) in the first trip by a
Sunni Arab delegation.
"The prominent leaders of the Iraqi Accordance
Front, Dr. Adnan al-Dulaimi, Tarek al-Hashimi, Ayad
al-Samaraie and others, are heading today to
Kurdistan after an invitation from Massoud Barzani,"
Accordance Front spokesman Thafir al-Ani told The
Associated Press.
AP
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