- (AFP) - An American soldier was killed and another was
wounded during an ambush in Baghdad, as violence also flared up in other
areas of the country.
-
- The soldier's unit was conducting a vehicle patrol in
Baghdad's Karkh district at around 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) when the ambush
occurred, the spokeswoman said Thursday.
-
- "Another soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded
in the incident," she said.
-
- The wounded were taken to a combat support hospital.
-
- The dead soldier was from Taskforce 1 Armoured Division.
-
- The latest death brings to 199 the number of US combat
fatalities in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared major fighting
over on May 1, according to an AFP tally of US casualty reports.
-
- More than 2,200 US troops have also been wounded over
the same period.
-
- Earlier three US soldiers were wounded in separate rocket
and mortar attacks in Iraq's northern capital Mosul Wednesday, Iraqi security
sources said.
-
- The 101st Airborne Division's public affairs section
had no information on the incidents when contacted late Wednesday.
-
- Iraqi police said two US soldiers were wounded in a rocket-propelled
grenade attack Wednesday morning in the city. The Americans returned fire,
wounding one attacker who fled the area, said police Lieutenant Haytham
Mohammad Jamal, who helped search for the suspect.
-
- Mahmoud Shaker Mohammad, 36, a shopkeeper in the area,
said the attackers fled on a motorcycle at about 9:00 am (0600 GMT).
-
- Just over six hours later, eight mortar rounds landed
at an American position near the University of Mosul, wounding one US soldier
and damaging a Humvee vehicle, said Mazen Khalil Jassem of the Facilities
Protection Service (FPS), which guards government buildings and facilities.
-
- Musaab Mohammad Sobhi, a witness, said he saw two men
get out of a car and fire the mortars.
-
- Nabil Siruan, a Kurdish militiaman helping to protect
the area, said one US soldier was wounded and a Humvee damaged.
-
- Four Mosul university students were shot Wednesday during
a second consecutive day of demonstrations in support of Saddam Hussein,
police said. Shots rang out as the protesters approached an FPS post, an
officer said.
-
- The latest clashes also came as a tanker truck loaded
with explosives blew up in Baghdad, killing 10 people.
-
- The tanker truck exploded Wednesday at a busy crossroads
in the Iraqi capital, killing 10 people and wounding 15, said police General
Nuri al-Nuri.
-
- The figure included two people who were believed to have
died in the truck.
-
- "These people could not control the vehicle at the
crossroads and it exploded crashing into a civilian car," Nuri said,
implying that the crossroads was not necessarily the target.
-
- Baghdad police chief General Sabah Fahed said earlier
the truck had been carrying explosives.
-
- "This act targeted civilians," he said. "This
was an act of terrorism because there was no (military) target here."
-
- It was the deadliest blast in Iraq since the US military's
announcement Sunday that former dictator Saddam Hussein had been captured
hiding down a hole near Tikrit, which set off a new wave of violence.
-
- Meanwhile, US forces, armed with intelligence gained
from Saddam's capture, made gains against insurgents fighting the US-led
occupation.
-
- "In the past 48 hours, we've had a very good haul,"
General John Abizaid, chief of the US Central Command, said in Kirkuk.
He said the leaders of several Baathist cells had been captured.
-
- "Make no mistake: the loss of Saddam Hussein is
a huge psychological blow and will pay dividends over time."
-
- In what appears to have been a major intelligence coup,
US commanders have said a trove of documents were seized in the raid that
netted Saddam, including minutes to a meeting of insurgent leaders that
listed by name those who attended.
-
- A global debate meanwhile continued over the fate of
the captured former Iraqi president.
-
- Muaffak al-Rubaie, a member of Iraq's interim Governing
Council, said Saddam was in Baghdad and would remain there to be put on
public trial by a new Iraqi government set to take over July 1.
-
- He said, however, that it had not yet been decided whether
Saddam will be tried as a prisoner of war or a war criminal.
-
- "Foreign judges may also be designated," Pachachi
said.
-
- Iraqi and US leaders have rebuffed calls for Saddam to
be tried before an international tribunal -- a position that won support
from French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who said it was up
to Iraqis to judge Saddam "while respecting the law and doing so impartially."
-
- In Washington, Iraqi legal experts warned convicting
Saddam might be more difficult than expected.
-
- "It is one thing to say what we all know about what
Saddam did. But it's another to prove it in a court of law," warned
Kanan Makiya, founder of the Iraq Memory Foundation, one of the groups
helping to draw up a new Iraqi constitution.
-
- "We don't have a smoking gun to convict Saddam.
We will need witnesses, documents."
-
- The foundation is gathering and analyzing documents from
the former Iraqi regime.
-
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