One soldier was killed and two injured when their convoy hit a homemade bomb near Baghdad, the military said in a statement Tuesday.
The incident took place around 11:30 p.m. Monday, the statement said. The injured soldiers were taken to a military hospital for medical treatment.
Also in Baghdad, U.S. warplanes pounded Sadr City overnight after an American patrol came under gunfire, the military said Tuesday. Hospital officials said at least one Iraqi was killed in the district.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, loud blasts echoed through the Iraqi capital as a number of mortar rounds landed near government offices, the Interior Ministry and witnesses said. There were no reports on casualties.
At least one round landed near the Oil Ministry, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said.
Witnesses told AP Television News that another round landed near the main passport office. The blast left a small crater in the road and there were bloodstains nearby. U.S. troops cordoned off the scene.
Also Tuesday, four U.S. soldiers were wounded when a car bomb targeting their convoy exploded in Mosul, the U.S. military said.
U.S. troops opened fire after the explosion, killing three
Iraqis in a passing vehicle and wounding a number of others
in the city's Yarmuk neighborhood, said police 2nd Lt.
Mohammed Ahmed.
Mohamed Qadir Youssef, a worker at Yarmuk's Al-Gomhuria
Hospital, said three persons were killed and three others
wounded in the incident.
Capt. Angela Bowman, a military spokeswoman, denied U.S.
troops opened fire against civilians in the area. She said
the four wounded soldiers were evacuated to a military hospital in Mosul. The blast occurred at midday at a traffic circle in Yarmuk, she said.
Elsewhere, two car bombs exploded in the city of Ramadi on Tuesday, killing four Iraqis and prompting clashes between U.S. troops and local resistance fighters. Locals said a booby-trapped car went off near the city's Grand Mosque as a U.S. military convoy passed. Four Iraqis inside a car near the blast were killed and two bystanders were injured, said Dr. Dia'a al-Haity, a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital. Witnesses said a wounded U.S. soldier was seen being carried away by his colleagues after the blast.
Earlier Tuesday, another car bomb exploded in another part of the city, sparking a gunbattle between U.S. forces and local fighters. At least two Iraqis were killed and four wounded in the fighting. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
