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Iraqi ex-soldiers protest 2nd day over pay
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- For a second consecutive day, hundreds of former Iraqi conscripts from Saddam Hussein's army scuffled with U.S.-led coalition troops and Iraqi police Sunday in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra. In Baghdad, at least one U.S. soldier was slightly injured and five demonstrators were arrested during scuffles in Damascus Square. Though all 440,000 ex-soldiers were to have received one-time $40 payments from the Coalition Provisional Authority by Saturday, coalition officials said the deadline passed with only 320,000 getting paid. The payments -- totaling about $18 million -- made by CPA over a series of months are coming from formerly frozen Iraqi funds. "The conscripts were told to come Sunday and get their money," said Capt. Bassem Issa, a spokesman for the Iraqi chief of police. But "there was no money to be given out." The U.S.-led administration in Iraq officially disbanded the country's army in May, leaving hundreds of thousands of conscripts unemployed. An Iraqi translator with the 1st Armored Division was carrying a stick or club, which angered the conscripts, who were already on edge because they had been promised their payments for seven days straight, he said. "Every day, they come to this location and they didn't receive their salaries." U.S. soldiers Sunday promised the ex-soldiers they would be paid if they returned in two or three days. In Basra, about 200 disgruntled former Iraqi soldiers demonstrated Sunday, said British military press officer Maj. Neil Greenwood. The ex-soldiers burned tires and threw stones at British forces, who dispersed the crowd by firing rubber bullets. None of the British soldiers was hurt and six demonstrators were arrested, Greenwood said. Coalition Provisional Authority official Charles Heatley said Saturday the violence was sparked by former Baathist officers who spread rumors that the CPA "didn't have enough money to pay them all." On Saturday, a doctor at Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad reported one Iraqi died and five others were wounded in the protests, including two Iraqis with gunshot wounds to the chest. At least 20 others were treated for minor injuries, said Dr. Abbas Jaffer. At least two U.S. soldiers and four Iraqis were wounded in Saturday's mayhem, the Coalition Provisional Authority said. Other developments• On Saturday, the task of rebuilding Iraqi institutions continued with the graduation of 700 soldiers in Baghdad. They will serve as the first battalion in the country's new army.
• An attack on a U.S. patrol in Baghdad late Friday killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another, according to the Coalition Press Information Center. The death brings the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to 318 -- 203 from hostile fire. The Infantry Division patrol came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades about 11:45 p.m. in As Sadiyah, a neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad. • Iraq's Central Bank unveiled the country's new currency, which will have the images of Iraqi historical figures instead of Saddam Hussein. The bills will go into circulation October 15 and Central Bank officials said Iraqis will have three months to exchange old money for newly designed bank notes. Ahmed Salman Mohammed, deputy governor of the Central Bank, displayed the notes, which will be available in six denominations -- 50, 250, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000 dinars. • Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that his country is not satisfied with the U.N. draft resolution on Iraq from the United States but added that he was heartened by the U.S. desire "to find a compromise." The U.S. proposal bolsters the U.N. role in the rebuilding of Iraq and calls for the development of a timetable leading to Iraqi sovereignty. (Full story) CNN senior producer John Raedler, photographer Bassem Muhi, correspondents David Ensor, Michael Holmes, Barbara Starr and Harris Whitbeck contributed to this report.
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