Some 11,000 held by the Americans in Iraq, including 307 foreigners

An American military official announced that the coalition forces are holding in Iraq some 307 persons suspected to be foreign fighters, most of them are Syrians and Iranians, in addition to a limited number from Chad, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the West Bank.

The American military official said that the total number of detainees in the Iraqi territories is 11,000.

A British military spokeswoman announced that the British forces in southern Iraq detained one Australian, over suspicion of being a supporter to the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, under the pretext that he constitutes a security threat to the occupation forces.

On the other hand, scores of workers of the fuel stations of the Iraqi oil ministry demonstrated in front of the ministry's building in protest of the privatization law approved by Iraq's oil minister Ibrahim Baher al-Aloum.