Demonstration in Khalidiya

Hundreds of protesters rallied on Wednesday in the Western Sunni city of Khalidiya, demanding that three women arrested by the Americans be released. AFP alleges that US soldiers went to their homes searching for their husbands, who are suspected in guerrilla attacks against US forces. The men had disappeared, so the soldiers arrested their wives. If this report is true, it is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids the use of collective punishment against civilians in occupied territories. (The wives are unlikely to have committed criminal acts themselves).