BAGHDAD, August 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded Tuesday, August 12, in two separate resistance attacks in Ramadi and Fallujah, as U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer renewed claims attacks were being carried out by "foreign" fighters.

"This morning, a soldier was in a convoy that came across a chain of improvised explosive devices," U.S. Specialist Nicole Thompson said.

"There was an explosion. One soldier was killed and two wounded. One of them has been returned to duty," he added.

Meanwhile, in Fallujah, one U.S. soldier was wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack on a military convoy, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoting a witness.

The convoy of six vehicles coming from a U.S. base at Habbaniya to the west was approaching Fallujah bridge at 4:15 pm (1215 GMT) when a bomb went off under a truck, farmer Rabih Mushraf told AFP.

The convoy stopped and one of the vehicles was hit by an RPG, he said.

Mushraf said a U.S. soldier fell on the ground and was lifted by his comrades, but he could not say how serious his injury was.

The convoy headed back in the direction of Habbaniya as residents flocked to the site, chanting, "With our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you Iraq," the witness said.

Some 60 U.S. soldiers have been killed in resistance attacks, while another 60 have died in non-combat incidents since the White House declared major combat operations in Iraq over on May 1, according to an AFP account.

The fresh attacks came as Bremer lashed out Tuesday at mounting Iraqi resistance, charging that "foreign fighters" have entered Iraq and carried out attacks on the American troops.

"There are foreign fighters who have entered Iraq and we were able to kill some of them at Al-Qaim area (near the Syrian borders), while they were entering Iraqi territory," Bremer claimed at a news conference attended by dozens of Iraqi and foreign reporters in Baghdad.

He said that there was "a real terrorist threat" to the U.S. troops, claiming that among those "terrorists now operating in Iraq" were Ansar Al-Islam, whom he said have entered Iraq after the end of the U.S.-British war which toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Hardly a day passes without a resistance attack on U.S. troops and military vehicles in difference parts of Iraq, particularly in the central towns of Baghdad, Ramadi, Felluja, Balad, Baquba and a number of other towns.

The American administrator admitted that a number of innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed or wounded, apart from those arrested, by the U.S. forces.

"Some Iraqi civilians have been lost.. We are trying to restore security and order and try to make sure that our soldiers avoid causing such human losses among civilians," Bremer said.

He also spoke about the efforts by the newly-formed Iraqi Governing Council to draft a new constitution for Iraq.

"The Governing Council is trying to draw the new constitution, which will help to form a new sovereign state for the people of Iraq," Bremer said.

Washington expressed disappointment at the lack of support given to the 25-member council at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers held last week in Cairo.

U.S. soldiers unload a blindfolded Iraqi detainee from a military truck in a U.S. army base in Tikrit

In another development, U.S. troops arrested seventy three Iraqis on charges of being Saddam loyalists in raids north of the capital Baghdad early Tuesday. Later, 66 of them were screened and released.

The interim Council warned the U.S. military that its bruising tactics risk alienating the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population.

The American soldiers near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit detained seven people in the raid targeting a financier of attacks on the U.S.-led forces, the U.S. military claimed.

The operation, codenamed as Objective Taco Bell, involved sweeps of 17 homes in the village of Mukayshifah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Tikrit, where opponents of the U.S.-led occupation were believed to be gathering.

"We think they were financing operations against coalition forces," Major Troy Smith told AFP at the 4th Infantry Division's (4ID's) 1st Brigade headquarters.

The operation did not catch its main prey, AFP said.

There was also a case of diminishing returns in a surgical strike, code-named Operation Ivy Lightning, by some U.S. troops near the Iranian border early Monday, August 11.

The pre-dawn offensive which tapped light-armored Bradleys, M1-Abrams Tanks and an arsenal of Apache gunships, Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance and Blackhawk transport helicopters, netted only two suspects and some minor weapons caches, said Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald of the 4ID Tuesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces received a stern warning from one of their best friends in Iraq, the 25-member Governing Council.

Ibrahim Jafari, the council's first president, said the fledgling body had told the Americans to ease their aggressive raids, as civilians find themselves trapped in the middle, with lethal consequences.

He warned that rough conduct by U.S. forces would only let "hatred grows against them."

Jafari, a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party, called his country "occupied," and said: "The blood of our compatriots has huge value in our eyes, especially when soldiers kill innocent people."

U.S. conduct has come under the spotlight since a July 27 raid in the upmarket Baghdad district of Mansur that left at least four civilians dead when soldiers opened fire on two cars that failed to stop at a checkpoint.