American soldiers fire on political rally, killing at least 10 civilians

American soldiers killed at least 10 Iraqis and wounded dozens of others yesterday when they reportedly fired on a political rally in Mosul. "There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 or 12 dead," said Ayad al-Ramadhani, director of the Republican Hospital in Mosul.

The shooting of civilians will further sour the mood in Iraq, where there were three other protests yesterday against an American occupation.

The events leading up to the deaths are still unclear. Said Altah, another doctor at the hospital, said: "The wounded say that the crowd was listening to a speech by the new governor, Mihsan al-Jaburi." Mr Jaburi is a member of the Iraqi opposition who entered the northern city with Kurdish forces last week.

Mr Jaburi had said that co-operation with the Americans was necessary. This angered the crowd and, in circumstances still unexplained, the troops fired. An American military spokesman said that the troops were fired on before they returned fire.

Kurdistan Television said last night that five people had been killed and hundreds wounded during the anti-American demonstration.

The Arabs of Mosul, where they are the majority, were already angry at the sacking of the city last week, which they blame on the Kurds although Kurdish leaders deny that any of their regular forces had entered the city at the time. Many people blame the mass looting that followed the city's capture on America, which had sent most of its troops to secure the oilfields of Kirkuk and had none available for Mosul.

Mosul has become calmer in the past few days, as armed residents organised by the mosques have blocked off streets and set up checkpoints to prevent looting. But the Arab part of the city, which has a Kurdish minority, is festooned with Iraqi flags, though this is an assertion of Iraqi nationalism rather than a sign of support for Saddam Hussein.

The American forces in northern Iraq appear to have been taken unawares by the rapidly changing political situation – last week, one Kurdish party sent its forces to capture Kirkuk, also in the north, contrary to previous agreements. They also appear to have believed that hostility to President Saddam by Iraqis automatically implied that they were pro-American. The Kurds, though dependent on their alliance with the United States, are struck by the Allied forces' inability to help restore essential services such as electricity and water supplies.

Mosul, a city of 700,000 people that has been a crossroads of cultures for thousands of years, is regarded as a microcosm of Iraq and an important test of efforts to create a plural democratic society.

Kurdish leaders are desperately trying to stave off a crisis between Kurds and Arabs in ethnically mixed cities such as Mosul. The most powerful Kurdish figure, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, issued a statement yesterday warning Kurds not to "attack the property, life or integrity of any Arab citizen".