U.S. soldiers move under the cover of their armored vehicles

BAGHDAD, June 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Another U.S. soldier was shot dead in Baghdad and four of his comrades wounded late Friday, June 27, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called on the American people to be patient in the face of mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq.

An Iraqi translator was also wounded in the attack, Sergeant First Class Patrick Compton said.

In the flashpoint town of Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, two anti-tank rockets destroyed a U.S. armored vehicle overnight, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Saturday, June 28, quoting witnesses.

Unknown persons staged the attack just after midnight (2000 GMT Friday) in the town.

Ambulances took away the wounded, according to the witnesses who were unable to say how many were hurt or of what nationality.

U.S. troops quickly secured the area and kept people away. The armored vehicle had been loaded on a crane-truck.

Residents also said there was an explosion around 6:00 am (0200 GMT) at the same location where the U.S. vehicle had been attacked hours earlier.

However, a U.S. military spokesman was unable to confirm either incident.

On Thursday, June 26, a U.S. soldier was killed and nine were injured in an ambush near An-Najaf late, as American troops remain "baffled" after two fellow armed-to-the-teeth soldiers had been reportedly abducted along with their armored vehicle by Iraqi resistance fighters.

U.S. Army Major Robert Gwinner said military intelligence believed Fedayeen, loyals to ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, were using the missing Humvee "to get close to Americans with the vehicle to probably conduct another terrorist attack against them."

On June 16, the Iraqi resistance issued its first statement, which was circulated in Baghdad's mosques and streets.

"Iraqis should stay away from occupation soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles, to allow our fighting cells to carry out their martyr operations without leaving civilian casualties," read the statement, vowing to keep its operations up and running.

"We will not feel guilty if any of those accompanying - or collaborating with - the Americans were killed," it added.

U.S. President George W. Bush warned June 21 that the U.S. forces in Iraq were facing a future of "danger and sacrifice.

"The men and women of our military face a continuing risk of danger and sacrifice in Iraq," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

According to an AFP count, the new death brings to 61 the number of U.S. troops killed since the U.S. president declared the war on Iraq effectively over on May 1.

'Patience'

Powell was hopeful mounting fatalities would not increase pressure to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq

The rising U.S. death toll in postwar Iraq prompted Powell to urge the American people to "demonstrate the patience and the understanding of the situation," and not to increase calls to bring the troops out of Iraq.

"I hope the American people will demonstrate the patience and the understanding of the situation," he said in a radio interview, adding that "I would say to the American people that we always recognized this would be a dangerous operation."

"And even though major combat action is over... we always expected there would be this residual problem of Fedayeen, of the Baath party members, of old Saddam cronies and others who are coming in to make mischief, and they would have to be dealt with," Powell said.

He was hopeful the mounting casualty toll would not increase pressure to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

"I hope it does not. I hope it increases the pressure on us to get the security situation under control more quickly," he said.

"We're not going to be pushed out," he insisted, saying it would take "months" for the U.S. to get on top of the situation.

In a further sign of the nervousness of the U.S. administration facing mounting Iraqi resistance, the Pentagon said a group of independent U.S. policy experts was due in Baghdad to assess the postwar state of the country.

The five-member group will report to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, a Pentagon spokesman said.

AFP interviewed U.S. soldiers in Iraq on June 23, who all signaled their fear and resentment at the situation there, asserting that they wanted to go home and on their feet and not shrouded in coffins, telling themselves "enough is enough."

"I think I had enough. It's time for us to go home," Private First Class Joe Cruz, 18, from the Second Brigade of the Army's Third Infantry Division in Fallujah told AFP.

During the war, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who resigned from the government in opposition to Iraq invasion, lashed out at the British government, demanding that British troops be pulled out from Iraq.

"I have already had my fill of this bloody and unnecessary war. I want our troops home and I want them home before more of them are killed," Cook said.

Six British soldiers were killed and eight others injured June 24 in two separate incidents in southern Iraq, in the first major attack on British soldiers since the fall of the Iraqi capital on April 9.