Al-Qaeda in Iraq said Tuesday in an Internet posting that its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been injured and called on followers to pray for his recovery. "Let the near and far know that the injury of our leader is an honor, and a cause to close in on the enemies of God, and a reason to increase the attacks against them," the statement said.
Earlier this month, there were reports that al-Zarqawi was at treated in an hospital in the city of Ramadi.
Meanwhile, eight US troops were killed in two days of attacks in and around Baghdad, the military said.
A car bomb exploded near a girls school in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing six people and injuring at least three others, a police official said.
The explosion took place near eastern Baghdad's well-known Withaq Square, near the Alwiyah residential area, destroying at least three cars and damaging several buildings.
Residents had notified police about a suspicious-looking car, and bomb disposal experts were approaching the vehicle to inspect it when it exploded, killing six bystanders, said police Capt. Husham Ismael.
Three civilians and one policeman were also injured.
Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded near a convoy patrolling in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three American soldiers, the U.S. military said. The blast took place in Baghdad at about 1:30 p.m., U.S. military spokesman David Abrams said. Later, a U.S. soldier sitting in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle at an observation post was shot dead by gunmen in a passing car.
Four American soldiers were killed Monday after they were attacked in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.
In another attack, a homemade bomb destroyed a Bradley fighting vehicle late Monday in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, wounding three U.S. soldiers. Two of them returned to duty while the third remained in a military clinic, said Sgt. Jeffrey Pool. None of the soldiers was seriously hurt.
Iraqi activists also killed two people and seized control of Tal Afar, a town 50 miles west of the northern city of Mosul, police said Tuesday, hours after two car bombs killed at least 20 people there late Monday.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
