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Iraqis protest against Iranian attack

BAGHDAD: Several thousand Iraqis protested in Baghdad on Saturday against a mortar attack on a residential district of the city in which six people were killed, Iraqi newspapers said on Sunday.

They blamed Iran for Tuesday night's attack, which came as tension is rising between Iran and Iraq, who were at war between 1980 and 1988.

Three Palestinians and three Iraqis died in the assault.

"The demonstrators expressed anger against the cowardly act carried out by agents of the Iranian regime who targeted residential areas in a Baghdad suburb," the government al- Jumhuriya newspaper said.

Protesters burned American and Israeli flags and chanted slogans in support of President Saddam Hussein, the paper added.

Tension between the two neighbours has escalated in recent weeks over cross-border attacks by the Iraq-based Mujahideen Khalq, the main exiled Iranian opposition group.

Baghdad said on Saturday its air defences had shot down an Iranian pilotless plane over its territory for the second time in a month. Iran said the Mujahideen had killed two of its soldiers near the border.

The Mujahideen said their anti-aircraft systems last week repulsed an air attack by Iran against one of their military bases inside Iraq.-Reuters