BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Two American soldiers were reported killed and several others wounded Thursday, July 31, in separate attacks in Baghdad bringing to four the number of U.S. fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Quoting eyewitness, Al-Jazeera TV channel reported that an American soldier was killed in Haifa street in downtown Baghdad in a new attack by Iraqi resistance fighters.

In a separate incident, the American army confirmed that a soldier was killed and three wounded Thursday when their armored vehicle drove over a landmine on the road to Baghdad airport.

"One First Armored Division soldier was killed and three wounded when their M-113 armored personnel carrier hit a landmine on the road leading to the airport in Baghdad," Corporal Todd Pruden told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, also said a U.S. soldier was killed on the route.

An AFP photographer witnessed four soldiers being evacuated from the scene by a medical helicopter.

Flames and smoke engulfed the American military vehicle on the dangerous road where occupation soldiers regularly come under fire.

In another incident, Al-Arabiya TV channel quoted eyewitnesses as saying that about five U.S. soldiers were killed when two Iraqi fighters stepped out of a car and fired RPGs at an American military vehicle.

The report, which was not carried by any other media outlet, was not confirmed by the American army.

Flames and smoke engulfed the U.S. military vehicle on the road to Baghdad airport

Meanwhile, in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, several RPGs were fired at a U.S. armored vehicle in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, witnesses said.

The vehicle, stationed opposite the city's university, was on duty near an American base when it was hit, they said.

It was not clear if there were any casualties in the attack, the latest in a string of anti-U.S. operations in the area since U.S. forces reported killing Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, in a massive raid in the city July 22.

American occupation troops cordoned off the area and deployed in nearby streets, residents said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from the U.S. army.

Jubilant Iraqis celebrate the destruction of a U.S. military vehicle

Earlier in the day, American army specialist Nicole Thompson said "one soldier was killed and two wounded," by small arms fire on a Fourth Infantry Division base northeast of the Iraqi capital late Wednesday, July 30.

Also on Wednesday, one American soldier was killed and others were injured in an ambush of a military convoy near the western flashpoint city of Falluja, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, Al-Jazeera reported.

The Qatar-based channel broadcast photos of jubilant Iraqis dancing on and around burned American military vehicle.

It also showed a smoldering ambulance, in which an Iraqi woman was found charred, after it was likely shelled by an American helicopter gunship.

Also Wednesday, U.S. troops came under mortar attacks and ambushes in Baquba, 60 kilometers from Baghdad, a battlefield of nightly and repeated attacks on the occupation forces.

On Saturday, July 26, three U.S. soldiers from the U.S. Army's Fourth Infantry Division were killed and four others were injured in a grenade attack in Baqubah.

Since the start of May, at least 52 U.S. soldiers have now been killed in attacks by Iraqis resistance fighters, according to an AFP count.

The war-ravaged country has descended into chaos and anarchy since American tanks rolled into Baghdad on April 9, and since then anti-American sentiments are running high among Iraqi citizens.

"How can you know if you're closer until you catch him?" Rumsfeld told senators

In another American provocation, U.S. forces detained 559 Iraqis in the past 24 hours as they pursued the search for elusive Saddam Hussein.

American forces conducted a total of 51 raids and 1,977 patrols, including 287 joint patrols with Iraqi police.

"The total raids and patrols resulted in 559 arrests including two for murder, four for robbery, five for aggravated assault, 39 for theft, two for controlled substance violation, 235 for weapons violations and 272 for various other crimes," U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The detentions were significantly higher than the figures normally announced by the military, reflecting the aggressive tactics being pursued on the ground, particularly in the region of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.

On Tuesday, an American army spokesman said 176 people were detained in a similar number of patrols and raids, while "very significant" weapons caches were seized, including 2,000 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).