BAGHDAD,
May 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four soldiers were
wounded Monday, May 26, when an unknown Iraqi threw a bag packed with an
explosive device in front of a convoy of U.S. troops on a major highway
leading to Baghdad airport, U.S. commanders on the scene told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
The
three soldiers in the convoy's lead vehicle were injured, along with a
fourth who went to help rescue them and was wounded by ammunition that
exploded from the first vehicle.
The
attacker was shot and wounded but managed to escape, said Lieutenant
Colonel Scott Rutter of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Rutter
said the explosive device hurled at the convoy was a "satchel
charged munitions."
He
said the first Humvee was completely destroyed from the secondary
explosion.
"The
vehicle turned into ash," but the soldier wounded from that blast
suffered only a minor injury, he said.
He
said the attacker had been hiding in the median area of the highway.
"The
second vehicle engaged the individual but the individual got away. He
was shot and wounded and ran away across the highway," Rutter said.
"This
is an individual act of cowardice. Order in Baghdad is present. Any time
you have a large group of civilians there's going to be some bad
guys," he added.
The
U.S. military said earlier Monday that a soldier had been killed and
another wounded when their convoy was attacked in an area close to
Iraq's border with Syria in a deadly ambush coinciding with Memorial Day
in the United States when the nation honors its war dead.
"An
unknown number of attackers fired small arms, rocket-propelled grenades
and heavy machine guns at the convoy (near Hadithah, some 190 kilometers
northwest of Baghdad," Central Command said.
Ongoing
Resistance
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A U.S. soldier arrives at the scene where an U.S. Army Humvee was destroyed in an apparent ambush on the road to Baghdad International Airport Monday_ May
26
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U.S.
soldiers shot dead an Iraqi woman carrying two hand grenades in Baqubah,
40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baghdad, late Sunday, the U.S.
military said Monday.
"An
Iraqi woman, who had her hands folded around her waist, approached U.S.
soldiers conducting a walking patrol searching for the attackers. The
military police squad leader instructed the woman to stop, and fired a
warning shot," the statement said.
"Squad
members verbally warned her several more times, but she continued to
advance towards them. When she refused, the squad shot her several
times. She fell to the ground, dropping one grenade, and continued to
crawl towards them.
"The
squad fired again, killing her. The soldiers examined her and found
another grenade. They turned the woman's body over to the local Iraqi
police," it added.
Central
Command also said Fifth Corps soldiers had raided a site early Monday in
Ajaji thought to contain former regime senior military officers and
personnel who were close to Saddam.
"They
have detained 107 Iraqis for questioning," it said.
‘De-Baathification’
In
another development, the head of the U.S.-led administration in Iraq,
Paul Bremer, announced Monday the creation of a new Iraqi body to advise
on his 10-day-old policy of rooting out Saddam Hussein's Baath party
from public life.
The
Iraq De-Baathification Council would have between 15 and 20 members and
would probably comprise a "mix" of former exiles and
politicians who had stayed on through Saddam's 24 years of iron-fisted
rule, Bremer told a news conference.
"The
idea is to try to create an institutional mechanism to get the
de-Baathification process going and return the assets,” he said.
"It
is important that it is not just the coalition doing this but also the
Iraqi people."
Earlier
Monday, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Ramiro Lopes da
Silva, called for the de-Baathification process to be conducted
"cleanly and fairly".
"What's
needed is a fair process. Criminals have to be punished and the others
rehabilitated," he said, warning of the risk of getting rid of top
officials in state institutions who were needed to re-launch Iraq's
administrative and economic machines.
Meanwhile,
Bremer called Monday for remembrance of U.S. and British dead as the
United States marked Memorial Day.
"I
want to pay my tribute to those who fell in the war against Saddam
Hussein and the struggle to remove him from power," AFP quoted
Bremer as telling a press conference.
