U.S. Soldier Dies in Ambush in Iraq
By JIM KRANE
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Ambushers killed a U.S. soldier in southern Iraq and U.S. troops arrested three Iraqis Friday in connection with the disappearance of two U.S. servicemen north of Baghdad.
At least three U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq since Thursday, two of them in ambushes against U.S.-led occupation forces.
Also Friday, a gunman shot a U.S. soldier shopping for video compact discs on a sidewalk in northwest Baghdad, witnesses said. Ammar Saad, a 44-year-old vendor, said the soldier was shot in the neck at close range and appeared to have been killed. U.S. military spokesmen in Baghdad said they had heard of the incident but were unable to confirm it.
Saad and another witness, 20-year-old porter Jassem Obeid, said the assailant escaped into crowds at a nearby market.
A U.S. Army Military Police soldier was killed while investigating a car theft Thursday in Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Baghdad, said Army Sgt. Patrick Compton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. And a U.S. Navy sailor died in a non-combat incident in southern Iraq Thursday.
The MP, who was attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, died before medics arrived on the scene. The sailor who died was also attached to the 1st MEF, Compton said.
The names of the dead service members were withheld pending notification of relatives.
Also Friday, three suspects detained in connection with the disappearance of two American soldiers were being interrogated, Compton said.
Intense ground and aerial searches have so far failed to find the soldiers or their Humvee, and the U.S. military suspects the missing vehicle and soldiers' uniforms could be used by enemy forces in a fresh attack, Compton said.
``They're (U.S. soldiers) keeping extra watch out for that vehicle and will approach it as a hostile vehicle,'' Compton said. ``They don't know what they will encounter when they get up to it.''
The missing pair were guarding the perimeter of a rocket demolition site near the town of Balad, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baghdad, when they failed to answer a radio call and became the subject of a manhunt Wednesday night, Compton said.
Compton said he was unsure whether the soldiers are still alive.
``We don't know if they were abducted or they were just killed,'' he said.
Just northwest of Baghdad Friday morning, a U.S. Army truck struck an explosive device on a dirt road. A U.S. soldier and an eyewitness said wounded Americans were evacuated by helicopter.
The U.S. soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Americans were driving to Baghdad to make telephone calls to their families when the explosion occurred.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, assailants blew up a U.S. military vehicle with a roadside bomb, dropped grenades from an overpass, destroyed a civilian SUV traveling with U.S. troops, demolished an oil pipeline and fired an rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. Army truck, wounding two soldiers.
Hostile fire also killed one U.S. special operations soldier and wounded eight others on Thursday, the military said, without providing details.
Until recently, most violence against U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq occurred in the Sunni Muslim-dominated belt north and west of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein enjoyed a degree of support. In the past few days, attacks have spread to the Shiite majority south.
Late Thursday, a British plane dropped leaflets on the southern town of Majar al-Kabir, where six British soldiers and at least five Iraqi civilians were killed in violent clashes on Tuesday.
The leaflets stated that the U.S.-led coalition forces regret the loss of life among Iraqi civilians, and added that coalition forces were not behind the incident.
``We will not return to punish anyone since these are the methods of Saddam's regime. We will return to set up good relations with you because of our concern about a secure Iraq,'' the three-paragraph statement read. ``Don't let rumors ruin our good relations.''
The leaflets added that British forces - who have not been seen in the volatile town since Tuesday's melee - would return to Majar al-Kabir, 290 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Baghdad, to repair the damage done during Saddam's rule. It didn't specify when the British plan to return.
Officials played down the violence, but the surge in attacks is causing concern that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq could be turning into a guerrilla war.
A military spokesman, Maj. William Thurmond, said the spate of ambushes could be a response to recent U.S. raids on Baath Party strongholds.
``There have been more attacks recently, but it's probably premature to say this is part of a pattern,'' Thurmond said. ``We've kicked open the nests of some of these bad guys.''
The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, however, aired statements Thursday from two previously unknown groups urging assaults on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
One, by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect, claimed responsibility for recent attacks and promised more. The other, by the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Iraq, called for ``revenge'' against America.
Al-Jazeera said it could not verify the statements.
Two U.S. officials familiar with intelligence information said they had not previously heard of the groups issuing the statements and had no way to know whether they were credible.
Tensions in the Iraqi capital have been exacerbated by electricity outages that have worsened over the past week. Some areas of Baghdad have gone without power for three or more days at a time.
U.S. officials acknowledge that Baghdad's electricity supply is decreasing - after improving for a time after the war. They blame incessant blackouts on sabotage at power stations.
The lack of electricity - which also prevents drinking water from being pumped - has fueled frustrations and anti-U.S. sentiment.
Residents in Baghdad and across Iraq still suffer from a withering crime wave, with carjackings, muggings and shootings common.
Andrew Bearpark, director of operations for the occupying administration, told reporters Friday that the outages were due to a ``mixture of technical problems and criminal sabotage.''
He added that part of the problem is that people are buying more appliances and using more electricity - and vowed that reconstruction will go on.
``We will succeed, we will rebuild,'' he said.
AP writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Bassem Mroue and Nadia Abou el-Magd contributed to this report.
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