One American soldier was killed and another injured when a roadside bomb went off alongside their vehicle in Baghdad, the US Army reported Sunday.
The attack took place around 10.30pm Saturday, the Army said. The latest death brought to 776 the number of US service members who have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year.
Elsewhere, Shiite fighters clashed with occupation troops in both central and southern Iraq. Three Iraqis were killed in an early morning rocket attack that targeted a British camp near the main southern city of Basra, while two Iraqis were killed and 15 injured in clashes in the central holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
Twenty people were also wounded when a shell exploded in a market in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday pledged that Washington would respect the sovereignty of the post-June 30 administration and lead key allies Britain, Italy and Japan in pulling out its troops if asked.
Powell said Washington would also accept any government chosen by the Iraqi people in elections tentatively scheduled for January, even an Islamist one. "We will have to accept what the Iraqi people decide upon," Powell told NBC television when asked if an Iranian-style theocracy would be acceptable. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
