Protests, praise after year of war
Secretary of state in Baghdad, Bush in D.C. laud progress
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| | ON CNN TV |  Stay with CNN for ongoing updates and analysis of reactions to President Bush's speech marking the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. |
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Protests in Baghdad marked the anniversary Friday of the beginning of the war in Iraq, as President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell took the occasion to praise the country's progress toward democracy.
In Washington, Bush told a White House audience that included diplomats of countries that participated in the war that the United States and its allies "have pledged before the world: We will never bow to the danger of the few."
Powell spoke as he visited Baghdad, an unscheduled stop on his tour of Asia.
In the capital, Iraqis took to the streets to protest the U.S.-led occupation, expressing outrage over poor security and unemployment.
The demonstrations came hours after several Iraqi and other international journalists walked out of the coalition news conference while Powell stood at the podium.
The reporters were angry over the deaths of two Arabic-language TV network journalists, who they believe were killed by U.S. troops.
One al Arabiya correspondent died Friday from injuries received in the shooting that killed his cameraman a day earlier, according to the network.
The journalists who walked out demanded a "full and open investigation into journalist martyrs."
Later in the news conference Powell said that though he did not know the details, he was "confident it wasn't deliberate. ... At a scene where there's been a battle or explosion or something of that nature there tends to be confusion, very often it is dark, mistakes can occur," he said.
Al Arabiya said the two journalists were shot Thursday night by U.S. troops after another vehicle, traveling alongside their car, ran a U.S. checkpoint.
U.S. military had no information on the incident.
The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council banned al Arabiya from operating in Iraq for two months starting in November 2003. The council punished the network for airing an audiotape, said to be from Saddam Hussein, urging Iraqis to kill council members, according to Reporters without Borders, an international group concerned with press freedom.
Powell's visit to Baghdad was preceded by a week of violence in Iraq.
But despite that violence, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi people are "vastly better off" than there were under Saddam.
"The killing fields are gone, the mass graves are not having new bodies piled up day after day, as happened under Saddam Hussein," Rumsfeld said.
"The prisons have been changed, and they are no longer torturing and killing people there," he said.
Bloody week
A 1st Infantry Division Soldier died Friday from injuries sustained in a Bradley fighting vehicle accident Wednesday, the Coalition Press Information Center said Friday.
The soldier was one of two injured in an accident that killed another soldier. The Bradley overturned near Baji.
Two U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Wednesday in Iraq's al Anbar province, the Coalition Press Information Center said Friday.
The Marine force said only that the two were killed "while conducting security and stability operations."
The two deaths bring to 572 the number of U.S. troops killed in the war's first year, 389 of them from hostile fire.
Since Bush declared the end of major combat operations May 1, 433 troops have been killed, 274 from hostile fire.
On Wednesday a car bomb killed seven Iraqi civilians, and destroyed a hotel and surrounding buildings in Baghdad's Karrada district.
A bomb that went off Thursday in the southeast city of Basra killed at least three Iraqi civilians, the U.S.-led coalition said.
That explosion, caused by what officials think was a car bomb or a roadside bomb, occurred as a British military convoy was passing. The convoy, however, was not affected.
Afterward, about 2,000 people gathered at the scene and one person, who was suspected of being involved in the attack, was handed over to the British military, the spokesman said.
Other developments
Explosions from what coalition sources said may have been three rockets or mortar shells were heard in Baghdad Friday night at about 8:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET). Sirens could be heard in the Green Zone, where the coalition is headquartered. Initial reports do not show injuries or damage, officials said.Britain's top envoy in Iraq, former U.N. Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said Iraqis will have "unbelievably bad days" as the violence continues in the months ahead. (Full story) South Korea has canceled plans to send troops to the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, citing U.S. pressure to participate in "offensive operations" that are contrary to Seoul's mission of peaceful reconstruction, the Defense Ministry said Friday. (Full story)CNN's Sally Holland, Jane Arraf, Walter Rodgers and Kianne Sadeq contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
