Thousands protest poor security in southern Iraqi city of Basra
By BUSHRA JUHI Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) _ Thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in Basra, protesting deteriorating security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for safety last December.

It was day of violence as well as political unrest in Iraq: Police in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad reported two separate bombings in which six people were killed, and officers also found 13 bullet-ridden bodies.

In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the urban center of an oil-rich region, Shiite groups have been wrestling for control.

Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for Basra at the end of last year.

In February, two journalists working for CBS were kidnapped in the city. One was released but the other, a Briton, is still being held.

As many as 5,000 people demonstrated near the Basra police command headquarters Saturday, demanding that the police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul- Jalil Khalaf, and the commander of joint military-police operation, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, resign.

Many carried banners, decrying the killing of women, workers, academics and scientists. Dozens of women were slain in Basra by religious extremists last year because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings."

Saturday's protesters, overwhelmingly men, came from several Shiite political movements, including the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its militia wing, known as the Badr Brigade.

Khalaf said at a news conference later that "today's demonstration was a natural right of the citizens and the political parties to express their opinions."

He defended the performance of the police, saying they had freed 10 people who were kidnapped in the past 10 days and "detained 64 people accused of carrying out sabotage and terrorist operations all over Basra."

Meanwhile, in Diyala province, an official in the joint police-army operations center said roadside bombings killed six people in Wajihiyah, about 15 miles east of the provincial capital of Baquoba.

In the first attack, a bomb destroyed a car - killing a mother and her two children and wounding two others, including the woman's husband. The second attack hit a bus, killing three men and wounding two others, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police also found the bulletriddled bodies of 13 men in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the official said.

Also in Diyala province, an American soldier was killed Friday during an operation, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The U.S. military also confirmed it had released a journalist from a prominent Shiite-run television station on Friday afternoon after he was cleared of having connections to so-called "special groups" militias.

That term is often used by the military to describe Shiite extremists who have broken with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al- Sadr.

Hafidh al-Beshara, the news editor and manager of political programming for Al-Forat TV, was detained two weeks ago along with his son, who is still being held.

Meanwhile, police said a French reporter was stabbed Saturday at a hotel in Iraq's northern Kurdish city of Irbil, police said. The reporter was hospitalized with minor injuries to her arm, according to Irbil police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul- Khaliq Talat.

The reasons for the attack were unclear, police said, adding that the manager and 10 members of the staff were arrested and the hotel was closed. No further details were released, including the reporter's employer.

Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, is among the safest and violence-free areas of the war-torn country.