The U.S. Humvee attacked by RPG in the al-Mustansiriya

BAGHDAD, July 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Few hours after an American helicopter gunship reportedly bombed a mosque in Fallujah killing ten Iraqis, six U.S. soldiers were killed and four others injured in two separate attacks in central and southern Baghdad on Tuesday, June 1.

The first attack occurred at 10:00 am (0600 GMT) when unknown persons fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a U.S. Humvee light multi-wheeled vehicle near a gas station in the al-Mustansiriya neighborhood, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported quoting witnesses.

Four U.S. troops were killed and two others wounded in the attack, they said.

The American casualties were immediately removed from the scene, witnesses told AFP.

An Iraqi civilian was also wounded and taken to hospital, said the witnesses, confirming that his 18-seat transport bus parked by the gas station was completely burnt.

There was no immediate confirmation by the U.S. military of the attack or the casualties.

On Fire

In the southern Iraqi city of  Yusufiyeh, an American military vehicle plunged into a hole on a road south of Baghdad, while angry Iraqis set fire to a second vehicle that came to their aid, with Al-Jazeera reporting that two U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the incident.

In a conflicting report, AFP quoted witnesses as saying that two American soldiers were only injured.

"It was an accident. There were two vehicles and the first drove into a hole in the highway. The second stopped, the soldiers got out, and Iraqis approached the second vehicle and set fire to it," Nabil al-Raheem, an Iraqi, said.

He added that two U.S. soldiers had been injured when their vehicle crashed, but did not say how the Iraqis had set fire to the other vehicle.

Witnesses had earlier said the blaze was the result of a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Another witness, Saif Taoma, backed up Raheem's account, adding that Iraqis had poured gasoline on the second vehicle to set it on fire.

"U.S. soldiers then started shooting in the air to clear the area," he said.

He added that a helicopter had arrived to evacuate the two injured soldiers, while U.S. troops removed the first vehicle.

The two-meter deep hole was filled with rubbish, suggesting it had not been recently created, and was not an ambush.

An American military spokeswoman was unable to confirm the incident, which occurred on the southern highway near Yusufiyeh, about 20 kilometers (13 miles) from Baghdad.

Quagmire

The American military vehicle put ablaze in Yusufiyeh

But the United States rebuffed reports Iraq was becoming a quagmire, struggling to defeat perceptions that the occupation of Iraq has reached a cul-de-sac.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that the U.S. troops in Iraq would not be deterred by any "hostile" actions to stop them and insisted on efforts to pacify and stabilize Iraq.

"We're in a global war on terrorism and there are people that don't agree with that," he argued.

"If you want to call that a quagmire, do it. I don't.

"We've been in discussions with something in excess of 20 nations about what they will be able to provide," Rumsfeld said.

"I don't know how anyone can internationalize it more than that. The effort has been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks."

A new poll indicated the steady dose of bad news was eroding public American support for the Iraq war.

Only 56 percent of respondents in the U.S.A. Today/CNN/Gallup poll said Iraq was worth going to war over, down from 73 percent in April.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers complained Sunday, June 29, that the administration had not done enough to encourage other countries to share the burden of Iraq, a suggestion Rumsfeld was quick to reject when asked to react.

Some 9,200 troops from around 15 countries are expected in Iraq by the end of the summer as part of a Polish-led force to augment the 150,000 U.S. and 12,000 British troops already there.

"Whether we need additional troops or not, I don't know. But I do know this, that a lot of our soldiers are getting very tired, and a lot of our reservists have been on active duty for a very extended period of time," Republican Senator John McCain, one of those pushing for more international support, told CBS television Sunday.

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.

Rumsfeld said he also has asked General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lieutenant General John Abizaid, incoming chief of the U.S. Central Command, to report by mid-July on whether U.S. forces in and around Iraq are adequate and whether any units should be replaced with fresh troops.

The rising U.S. death toll in postwar Iraq prompted U.S. Secretary of State Colin 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.

  Click to watch the al-Mustansiriya attack

  Click to watch the Yusufiyeh attack