The burned-out remains of a vehicle in Arbil after the Tuesday attack

BAGHDAD, September 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – One U.S. soldier and two Iraqis were killed and six American military servicemen were injured in separate attacks in Iraq late on Tuesday, September 9.

In the northern city of Arbil, a four-year-old boy was killed and 50 others injured, including six Pentagon personnel, in a bobby-trapped car bombing, a hospital director said Wednesday, September 10.

"We treated a total of 45 people overnight. One of the casualties was a four-year-old boy who died of his injuries," the head of the city's emergency hospital Faijulla Jalal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The explosion targeted houses in which U.S. soldiers sand military officials are staying, Al-Jazeera television quoted Iraqi sources as saying.

Putting the death toll at two, the Qatar-based channel, said other sources identified the target as a checkpoint manned by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which controls the city.

Jalal said the hospital treated three Americans with light injuries, one of them was in uniform and the two others in civilian clothes.

The emergency facility is one of two public hospitals here. The more serious casualties were transferred to the other one overnight.

Jalal said he understood at least two wounded from the bombing had been treated in a private hospital in the city.

"Most of the victims were woman and children," he said without being able to give a detailed breakdown.

A U.S. military spokeswoman had previously given a preliminary toll from Tuesday night's bombing of at least 53 injured and one dead, who Kurdish officials argued was a bomber.

"So far there are 47 wounded Iraqis and one confirmed dead. There were six U.S. DOD (department of defense) personnel who were injured," said Specialist Nicole Thompson.

But a spokesman for the U.S. 101st Airborne Division which patrols Arbil was quoted by Reuters as saying none of its soldiers had been killed or injured in the blast.

The bomb exploded 220 miles north of Baghdad in Kurdish-dominated territory, which has been spared much of the attacks U.S.-led forces have been grappling with since they rolled into Baghdad on April 9.

Car bombs targeting foreign involvement in Iraq and locals working with occupying powers have taken violence to a higher level, killing more than 120 people since August 7, said Reuters.

‘Suicide’

A Kurdish security officer argued the Arbil attack was the result of a "suicide bombing".

"From what I saw, I am 100 percent certain it was a suicide bombing," said Mohsen Jamil, a plainclothes officer who was on the scene 30 minutes after the blast.

"There was only one man dead and he was the driver of the car," he said, close to the pieces of mangled metal that were all that was left of the vehicle.

"I saw body parts in a nearby garden. I saw a burned hand and a foot. We are sure these body parts are from the bomber," said Jamil.

U.S. Casualty

In the meanwhile, the U.S. Army confirmed Wednesday that an explosion which killed a soldier who was driving a tanker full of liquefied petroleum gas was caused by an "improvised explosive device."

Specialist Nicole Thompson said the dead soldier was from the 3rd Corps Support Command, and another one was wounded and ferried to a nearby hospital.

The explosion hit a convoy as it passed between two underpasses on the main road north out of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman on the scene said.

It happened shortly after 5:00 pm (1300 GMT), 15 kilometers north of the capital on the road towards the northern city of Mosul.

This is the first officially-reported American death recorded in Iraq since September 2.

It takes the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraqi resistance attacks to 68 since the end of major combat operations on May 1.

Anti-American sentiments are on the upswing among Iraqis furious over the continued occupation of their country and lack of security five months since the collapse of Saddam Hussein regime.