Yahoo! News- Least 19 Dead as Coalition Fights Iraqi Protesters
KUFA, Iraq (Reuters) - Spanish-led troops and Iraqi police fired on protesters and clashed with armed Shi'ite militiamen near Najaf Sunday, leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 100 wounded, witnesses and hospital officials said.

After the shots were fired, clashes broke out between the troops and members of the Mehdi Army, an armed militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, a virulent anti-American cleric.

Sadr's supporters have staged several marches in the past week to protest against the closure a week ago of al-Hawza newspaper, a mouthpiece for Sadr that U.S.-led authorities accused of inciting anti-American violence.

We shoot people as they demonstrate against the oppression of their free speech. That will win hearts and minds.

In Baghdad, demonstrators chanting anti-American slogans protested at the entrance to the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration and in Firdos square, where a statue of Saddam Hussein was famously pulled down nearly a year ago.

Protesters at the Firdos square demonstration displayed the coffins of two supporters they said were killed by U.S. gunfire during another protest on Saturday night. A U.S. military spokesman said he knew nothing about such an incident.

Separately, the U.S. military said two U.S. Marines were killed in attacks over the weekend in a volatile province west of Baghdad where earlier this week four U.S. contractors were killed, burned and dragged through the streets by a jubilant mob.

And we wonder why...