U.S. soldiers on maximum alert as resistance attacks have become routine in postwar Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Another two U.S. soldiers were wounded early Sunday, June 29, and one Iraqi civilian was killed in an apparent attack using an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.

"Two soldiers from the 18th Military Police Brigade were injured and one Iraqi killed at approximately 7:30 am (0330 GMT) in Baghdad," Specialist G. Lorento told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It was an explosion from an improvised explosive device," he said, adding that two vehicles had been damaged, without specifying if they were U.S. military vehicles or those belonging to Iraqi civilians.

He, however, did not say if the Iraqi had been an attacker or a bystander and whether he had been killed by the blast or by U.S. gunfire.

He was unable to provide a location for the apparent attack, other than saying it occurred on Highway 8 on the U.S. military's maps of the city.

The condition of the two U.S. soldiers, who were transferred to a military hospital, was not known, he said.

A senior "coalition" official in Iraq said Saturday, June 28, that U.S. forces patrolling the capital were seeing regular instances of improvised explosives being planted on streets targeting U.S. troops.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military checkpoint also came under grenade attack overnight in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, Al-Jazeera satellite channel said Sunday.

According to eyewitnesses, a U.S. tank was destroyed, however, no casualties were reported.

The two incidents came as the two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for three days after apparently being abducted were found dead Saturday, some 35 kilometers northwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, an American military spokesman said.

On Friday, June 27, a U.S. soldier was shot dead in Baghdad and four of his comrades wounded as U.S. President George W. Bush warned on June 21 that the U.S. forces in Iraq were facing a future of "danger and sacrifice."

The continuation of the attacks proves that the war in Iraq is far from over despite Bush had declared the war on Iraq was effectively over on May 1.

The mounting Iraqi resistance brought the death toll of U.S. soldiers to over 200 since the U.S.-led troops waged war on Iraq on March 20, according to an MSNBC account.