U.S. forces come under almost daily attacks in Iraq

Additional Reporting By Sobhi Haddad, IOL Baghdad Correspondent

BAGHDAD, July 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -  Eight U.S. soldiers were killed when two armored vehicles came under a fresh grenade attack in Baghdad early Tuesday, July 8, it was reported here.

The attack by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) occurred at 9.15 local time (5.14 GMT), eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

All the eight soldiers were probably charred in the vehicles targeted by the attack in the main street linking the Baghdad International Airport and Al-Amel and Al-Bayaa street to the west, according to the eyewitnesses account, yet to be confirmed by independent sources.

Similar raids on the U.S. occupation forces were reported in the same area, which is leading to the largest American military base at the Baghdad airport.

Apache helicopters rushed to the scene to clear the area, the eyewitnesses said.

Thirteen U.S. soldiers were killed during the last 48 hours, as anti-American sentiments are on the rise among local inhabitants furious over lack of security and basic services, three months since the occupation forces rolled into Baghdad.

The Tuesday attack came few hours after unidentified assailants lobbed grenades at a police station in northern Baghdad overnight, injuring two Iraqi policemen.  The U.S. officials Tuesday declared the attack on the police station, but did not comment on the reported killing of the eight soldiers.

At least two attackers detonated three or more grenades and raked with gunfire a police station in the city's Ash-Shab district, where U.S. military police are stationed to train members of Iraq’s new police force.

"Two Iraqi police were wounded by shrapnel, one in the hand and one in the pelvis," a U.S. intelligence officer told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

An exchange of fire ensued, in which the U.S. army said it believed one attacker was wounded but escaped. No Americans were reported injured.

Iraq’s budding police force suffered a major blow Saturday when seven of its recruits were killed and up to 45 others wounded in an explosion in the town of Ramadi, west of the capital.

British Soldier Injured

Also Tuesday, the British Ministry of Defense said a British soldier was injured on Sunday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra when he was shot in the leg by a sniper.

"A British army patrol has been fired upon by two Iraqi gunmen while just patrolling in the outskirts of the city, in northern Basra," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman added that the soldier was in a stable condition in the British army field hospital in southern Basra after the incident, which took place on Sunday.

The attack comes after six British troops were killed on June 25 during clashes with the residents of a village about mid-way between Baghdad and Basra, which is under British control along with other sections of southern Iraq.

A British freelance journalist was shot dead by unknown assailants on Saturday in the first killing of a reporter in Iraq since the United States declared the end of its war here at the beginning of May 2003. 

On Monday, July 7, the U.S. military said Two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis were killed in two separate attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad overnight, as another American soldier shot a day earlier died of his wounds.

On Sunday, July 6, a U.S. soldier died of his wounds after being shot point-blank in Baghdad while guarding the university campus in the centre of the city.

More than 70 U.S. soldiers were killed in a spate of attacks since U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to the offensive against Iraq on May 1,