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3 U.S. Soldiers Killed, Blast Rocks Iraqi Foreign Ministry
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Worker of Iraq's Foreign Ministry look from open windows following the attack
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Additional
Reporting By Subhy Haddad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
October 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the U.S.
admitted Tuesday, October 7, three American soldiers were killed and
six others wounded in separate attacks a day earlier, an explosion
rocked the Iraqi Foreign Ministry near the U.S. occupation authority
headquarters in central Baghdad.
"A
soldier from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment was killed and one was
wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack at 9:50 pm
(1850 GMT)" in Ramadi, 110 kilometers west of Baghdad, said a
statement by the U.S. Central Command.
Ramadi
is a hotbed of anti-U.S. sentiments rising among local inhabitants
seeking an end to occupation and return of stability to the
war-ravaged country.
About
an hour later, another roadside bombing killed two soldiers from the
82nd Airborne Division and their Iraqi translator, the American
military said.
"Two
soldiers, attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, were killed and two
were wounded in al-Haswah at approximately 10:40 pm (0740 GMT).
"An
Iraqi interpreter was also killed in the attack," the military
said in a statement.
The
new deaths bring to 92 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat
since U.S. President George W. Bush declared an and end to the major
combat on May 1, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) account.
Meanwhile,
three U.S. soldiers were also slightly wounded by a bomb blast as they
patrolled Tikrit, Saddam's home town 180 kilometers north of Baghdad,
said Major Jossyln Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division.
A
strong explosion also rocked northwestern Baghdad at about 09:00 local
time (06:00 GMT), presumably aimed at a U.S. military convoy usually
patrolling the area. No further details were available on the
attack.
Two
similar explosions were heard late Monday coming from the northern
part of Baghdad, but neither Iraqi nor U.S. sources reported the
incidents.
Fire
Fight
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Shiites protest U.S. arrest of their scholars outside Ain al-Baih mosque |
In
another development, an attack Tuesday morning, presumably caused by
an explosive charge or a mortar shell, destroyed a number of cars in
the Iraqi Foreign Ministry’s parking, eyewitnesses told
IslamOnline.net.
The
eyewitnesses said Iraqi police in charge of guarding the Ministry
complex opened fire on the attackers who escaped amidst the crowded
streets leading to the complex.
But
a U.S. military official said immediately after the blast there was a
fire fight between occupation forces and an unknown attacker.
U.S.
forces have cordoned off the area and are patrolling the streets
around the ministry complex, as the gun battle lasted less than 45
minutes, American soldiers at the scene told CNN.
The
all-news network quoted an American military spokesman as saying the
blast was "not a bomb. We believe it was an RPG (rocket-propelled
grenade)".
There
was no mention of fatalities, but eyewitnesses quoted by Al-Jazeera
said a number of the Ministry complex guards were wounded.
The
Iraqi Foreign Ministry complex is few hundred meters away from
Al-Rashid Hotel and the Conference Palace buildings used by the U.S.
forces as their headquarters in the western side of river Tigris in
Baghdad.
The
area is among the most heavily guarded neighborhoods in the city.
Both
Al-Rashid and the Conference Palace were attacked twice by armed
Iraqis over the past few weeks that followed the fall of Baghdad on
April 9.
Kurdish
Hoshiar Al-Zibari was named
at the helm of Foreign Ministry by the U.S.-backed Governing Council.
Two
massive blasts had rocked the U.N.
headquarters and the Jordanian
Embassy in Baghdad, leaving dozens killed and scores injured.
SCIRI
HQ Attacked
In
another related development, one person was killed in a mortar attack
on the headquarters of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq (SCIRI) in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, some 280 kms to the
north of Baghdad, eyewitnesses said.
Tensions
flared between U.S. soldiers and the country's Shiite majority as
troops surrounded a Baghdad mosque Tuesday, where thousands of Iraqis
demanded the release of two Shiite leaders who had publicly denounced
the Americans, an AFP correspondent reported.
"Today
we hold banners, tomorrow we pick up our guns," the crowd
shouted, as a U.S. helicopter hovered over Ali al-Baih mosque in Bayaa
neighborhood, where about 100 American soldiers surrounded the protest
briefly before leaving.
The
demonstrators, estimated at more than 4,000, accused the Americans of
detaining Shiite leaders Moayad Kazrajy and Jaleel al-Shumari on
Monday.
The
U.S. military had no confirmation of the arrests, but last week U.S.
soldiers and Iraqis skirmished outside the mosque.
Also
Tuesday, U.S. troops defused a number of mines planted on a main road
at the densely-populated northern Baghdad Al-Hurriya district that
could have killed hundreds of people, eyewitnesses told IOL.
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