BAGHDAD, IRAQ--Riots erupted in Baghdad and Basra on Saturday, the last day scheduled for former Iraqi soldiers to receive payouts from the United States. Coalition forces opened fire at both disturbances, reportedly killing one Iraqi in each city and wounding others.

In an unrelated incident, a soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms attack late Friday in the town of As Sadiyah, northeast of Baghdad. A second soldier was wounded in the attack.

U.S. military officials said the riots were stoked by members of former President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, who helped spread rumors that the thousands of young men waiting in line would go home empty-handed and incited the crowds to attack.

"What they seem to have done is spread rumors that the coalition did not have enough money to pay all those who were waiting," said Charles Heatly, spokesman for the U.S.-led occupation authority.

U.S. soldiers in Baghdad responded Saturday morning to the surging mobs with riot batons, then opened fire.

Doctors at Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad reported that one person was killed and 15 to 20 injured, including several with bullet wounds.

A U.S. official disputed that any rioters were killed in the capital and said four Iraqis had been injured.

In Basra, a city in the south, a similar disturbance erupted a few hours later.

The Reuters news agency quoted Maj. Simon Routledge as saying a British soldier shot and killed an Iraqi man after seeing him fire a weapon. Witnesses said, however, that the man was a security guard who had been firing a warning shot to disperse the rioters.

Saturday was the last day for thousands of former Iraqi conscripts to receive a one-time payment of $40 that U.S. officials had promised them. Some of the men in Baghdad had lined up outside a former Iraqi military airport that is now a U.S. base as much 24 hours early.