U.S. Launches Baghdad Raid As Sunnis Protest Hussein Hanging

(RFE/RL) January 2, 2007 -- The U.S. military says its troops killed three people, including a suspected weapons dealer linked to Al-Qaeda, in a raid early today in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, enraged crowds protested the December 30 hanging of former President Saddam Hussein across Iraq's Sunni heartland.

Guards allowed a mob in Samarra into a bomb-damaged Shi'ite shrine. They marched through, carrying a mock coffin and photo of the dictator.

The demonstration took place at the Golden Dome shrine, which was shattered in a bombing by Sunni extremists 10 months ago that helped triggered the current cycle of retaliatory attacks between Sunnis and Shi'a.

The U.S. military also said today that a Marine killed an Iraqi soldier on December 30 during what it described as an altercation at a security post in Al-Fallujah. The military is investigating the incident

The military also reported the death of a U.S. serviceman in a roadside bomb on January 1, while Iraqi police said a separate bombing killed three civilians today in eastern Baghdad.

(AP, AFP, Reuters)