With anti-American hostilities on the rise here, a U.S. soldier was shot dead.

BAGHDAD, June 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A U.S. soldier was killed by a sniper gunfire in northern Baghdad late Monday, June 17, as a British official warned of further chaos in the invasion-dashed country.

The soldier was shot in the chest and collapsed while on patrol with Armored Division, U.S. military spokesman Major Sean Gibson was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying.

The gunman escaped, Gibson said, one day after the U.S. forces were plagued by more two separate attacks in the country.

The shooting also came on the second day of a major U.S. military mission, Operation Desert Scorpion, allegedly to seek out illegal weapons and track down resistance leaders.

Furious over the U.S. military presence which they insist to call all but occupation, most Iraqis felt American soldiers should pack up and leave their country, whose oil reserves are the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Further to fuelling anti-American sentiments, the U.S. occupation authorities, said the other stated aim of the operation, in which more than 400 civilians were captured in a perceived humiliation, is to provide humanitarian aid.

More than 40 U.S. soldiers were killed in sporadic attacks in Iraq since May 1, the day U.S. president declared an end to military strikes.

One correspondent, peering into a raided home, reportedly saw clothes and sheets scattered on the floor, drawers open with contents strewn, and a splintered wooden cupboard, the BBC News Online reported.

On Monday, Baghdad saw more two explosions. One was a landmine laid in a downtown tunnel. The other was a car bomb, in which a mother and daughter died in western Baghdad at an intersection where U.S. soldiers were manning a checkpoint earlier in the day.

There was no explanation for what caused the car blast, but one U.S. officer was quoted by Reuters as saying it was a suspected car bomb and that two soldiers had been hurt.

A U.S. military spokesman said that Americans would not routinely investigate such an incident unless it targeted U.S. troops.

Desert Scorpion follows another six-day offensive allegedly to clamp down on pro-Saddam fighters which killed at least 113 Iraqis, according to a tally from Iraqi witnesses and U.S. officials.

British Concerns

A U.S. official warned of further chaos in the already-restive country

In the meanwhile, British military sources last night voiced growing concerns over the efficiency of the American-led reconstruction operation in Iraq.

Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, had "fewer than 600" staff to run the country in which civil infrastructure was on the brink of collapse, a senior British official in Baghdad told The Daily Telegraph.

"This is the single most chaotic organization I have ever worked for," he said, adding that operation is “chronically under-resourced and suffers from an almost complete absence of strategic direction."

One defense source told The Times that the 17,000-strong force of British soldiers in Iraq may have to stay in place for as long as four years.

Meanwhile, there were further claims that the American post-invasion effort was being seriously undermined by incompetence, mismanagement and a shortage of staff, according to a report by the Independent.

British Prime Minister has faced a barrage of attacks amid reports that his government has exaggerated evidence of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction , the rationale the European country used along with the U.S. to make the case for the three week-invasion on the Arab country.

U.S. President George W. Bush angrily defended on Monday his case for Iraq invasion, amid accusations by opposing Democrats that the aggression was launched on a false pretext.