The body of a killed U.S. soldier on the road near Abu Gharib prison

Additional reporting by Mohammad Sadiq Amin, IOL Correspondent 

BAGHDAD, July 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Stepping up resistance operations, Iraqi fighters on Wednesday, July 16, killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four others in separate attacks and fired a surface-to-air missile at an American military plane while landing at Baghdad airport.

At least two U.S. soldiers were killed when an American infantry unit, stationed inside a training center for the deposed Baath party of ousted president Saddam Hussein, came under fierce mortar attack at dawn in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, witnesses told IslamOnline.net.

They confirmed that at least ten U.S. soldiers were present inside the center at the time of the attack.

An American medical evacuation helicopter flew off to airlift the causalities, added the witnesses.

Well-kept sources in Mosul also told IOL that American occupation forces had received threats of imminent attacks over the past days.

The Americans took the threats seriously and set up checkpoints everywhere and starting combing the city in search of weapons and resistance fighters, an unprecedented measure in the relatively calm city, they remarked.

In another related development, one U.S. solder was killed in an attack on an American military convoy on the road near Abu Gharib prison, west of the capital Baghdad, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The burnt-out U.S. military vehicle is believed to have been booby-trapped and detonated when the convoy of about 30 truck drove by, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Gantt from the 3rd Infantry Division told AFP.

"One of the guys who got out of the third vehicle (in the second line) was run over by the truck behind," Gantt said.

Two other soldiers suffered moderate wounds, but it was not clear if they were injured in the collision or as a result of the explosion.

"They have advanced in their sophistication and deception, which we already knew they were good at," Gantt said of the Iraqi fighters who carried out the resistance attack.

Specialist Roberto Alvares told AFP that "a seven-ton truck exploded and we saw smoke."

The body of the dead soldier lay about 30-40 feet (10 meters) from the truck, which had its front hood blown away by the force of the blast.

"We need to get out of here. We're just walking ducks, sitting in trucks. We can't defend ourselves," lamented Specialist David McCall.

In a third separate attack, two U.S. soldiers and five Iraqis were wounded when attackers threw a grenade at an American armored vehicle guarding a bank in Baghdad, witnesses and an AFP photographer confirmed.

The attack occurred in the Mansur district of central Baghdad at around 1:00 pm (0900 GMT), they said, as a U.S. Army spokesman said he was unaware of the incident.

Aircraft Under Fire

US soldiers wait near a Humvee after three soldiers were seriously injured in an attack in southern Baghdad

Also Wednesday, a C-130 military transport plane came under fire from a surface-to-air missile as it landed at Baghdad airport, the first suck attack since the fall of the Iraqi capital on April 9.

The missile was launched at 8:45 am (0445 GMT) but missed its target, a military spokesperson told AFP.

"I have not heard of any incident of this type," said Sergeant Amy Abbott, who has been working at the American military press center for one month.

Fallujah Again

On the highway to the flashpoint town of Fallujha, unknown Iraqis fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at U.S. troops Wednesday along a highway west of Baghdad, residents told AFP, as hundreds of U.S. troops blocked off long sections of road to conduct searches.

"Unknown gunmen launched an RPG at a Humvee on the highway to Fallujah, at (the small town of) Khandari (about 10:20 am (0620 GMT)," one resident said.

"U.S soldiers then blocked the highway and they deployed."

There was no immediate word of casualties.

U.S. soldiers withdrew Friday, July 11, from Fallujah after incessant resistance attacks and after Iraqi officers complained that the American presence put them at risk.

The highway exit ramp to Fallujah, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital, was quickly cut off by about 40 armored personnel carriers and other U.S. vehicles as soldiers conducted broad searches of the area with helicopter gunships circling overhead, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The attack came as a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq said Wednesday that U.S. troops in Iraq have killed a number of "attackers" involved in an RPG ambush west of Baghdad.

"Soldiers from the Third Infantry Division defeated a substantial RPG ambush at approximately 1:30 am in Fallujah" on Tuesday (2130 GMT Monday), the military said in a statement, reporting no U.S. casualties.

There were "a number of attackers," it said, adding "all attackers were killed."

Military spokeswoman Specialist Nikki Trent said she was unable to provide even an approximate number of fatalities.

However, residents in the town of Habbaniya between Fallujah and Ramadi said five Iraqis were killed by U.S. troops in what seemed to be the same incident.

They added that said a U.S. armored vehicle was destroyed by three RPGs.

In a non-combat incident, a U.S. Marine died late Tuesday, July 15, in Iraq after falling from a building in the town of Hilla south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

"A Marine from the First Expeditionary Force died late last night after falling off the rooftop where he was on guard," Specialist Nikki Trent told AFP.

The new toll takes to 35 the number U.S. soldiers who have now been killed in operations since May 1, U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

At least 50 more have died in accidents or other non-combat-related incidents in the same period.