SAMARRA, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis mourning two men killed in a firefight with U.S. troops clashed Saturday with civil defense forces, killing one officer and setting his pickup truck ablaze. ``Long live Saddam!'' they chanted as the vehicle smoldered.
Further north, as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq, gunmen killed a police rookie in the latest attack on Iraqis seen as collaborating with the U.S. occupation. U.S. forces arrested arms dealers and broke up a cell they said was planning attacks on Americans.
In Baghdad, an explosion in a truck killed at least two men late Saturday. Police found remnants of what appeared to be a mortar and shells at the site. It was not immediately clear whether the victims were guerrillas or bystanders.
The mourners in Samarra were burying two men killed last week in running battles with U.S. forces. After the Americans returned their bodies on Saturday, about 1,000 people marched to the cemetery to bury them. As is customary in Iraq, they fired weapons in the air.
A group of Iraqi officers from the U.S.-led civil defense corps told them to put away their guns, witnesses said, and the mourners opened fire, shooting one of the officers in the head and chasing away the others.
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