US soldier killed, four wounded in Iraq ambushes

9.00am

BAGHDAD - One United States soldier was killed and four were wounded in two separate Iraqi ambushes on Monday (Tuesday NZT) in one of the most violent days since US forces captured the Iraqi capital Baghdad on April 9.

It was a rare US fatality in action since President George W Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1 - three weeks after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

The deadly ambush was one of four separate attacks against US forces in a single day, including one in Baghdad, marking an increase in what have until now been sporadic and largely ineffective guerrilla-style attacks.

The US military said in a statement that gunmen fired assault rifles, machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment convoy near the town of Haditha, 180km northwest of Baghdad.

"The eight-vehicle convoy was conducting a resupply mission from Al Asad Air Base to Al Qaim (on the Syrian border) when it was attacked at about 6.15am (0215 GMT)," it said.

The statement said the wounded soldier was evacuated by helicopter. The names of both soldiers were being withheld pending next-of-kin notification, it said.

Hours later, an explosion ripped through a US military convoy on a highway on the outskirts of Baghdad, wounding three soldiers and destroying their Humvee military car, US soldiers and Iraqi witnesses said.

"An RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) could not have done this... it must have been a landmine," said a US soldier who was travelling in the convoy. An officer said soldiers saw a grenade being hurled at the vehicle in what he said was a "cowardly attack".

The convoy was travelling on Amiriyah highway in western Baghdad. US troops, backed by tanks, sealed off the scene.

Residents in the neighbourhood lined the road looking at the destroyed vehicle.

"They deserved it and they deserve more. They are occupiers, not liberators," Amiriyah resident Ali Abbas said.

In an indication of a possible rise in such attacks as Washington struggles to fill a power vacuum after Saddam's fall and restart the devastated infrastructure, the US military reported two other attacks on Monday.

A military police position in Baqoba north of Baghdad that had been used by Shi'ite militiamen came under grenade attack, another US statement said.

As Fifth Corps soldiers searched for the attackers, they shot twice and killed a woman who ignored warnings and continued to walk towards them while hiding two grenades, it said.

In the last incident, an unknown assailant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) soldiers who were on patrol in Baiji but the round did not explode, the military said.

US forces in Iraq have been attacked several times over the past weeks. An American soldier was shot dead at a bridge south of Baghdad earlier this month.

On Sunday, a US soldier was killed and another injured in an explosion at a facility containing Iraqi ammunition south of Baghdad.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq