A U.S soldier provide cover in front of a Bradley fighting vehicle

Additional Reporting By Subhy Haddad

Baghdad, October 13 (IslamOnline.net) – One U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded late Sunday, October 12, when their Bradley fighting vehicle ran over a landmine at the town of Beiji, while the governor of Iraq's Diyala province escaped an assassination attempt Monday.

A U.S. military spokesman said Monday, October 13, the attack took place in the town, some 200km to the north of Baghdad , sitting at the main road that connects Baghdad with Mosul in northern Iraq .

The attack took place 24 hours after a bomber broke with his booby-trapped car into the perimeter of Baghdad Hotel at the center of the Iraqi capital, killing 7 persons and wounding over 30 others, most of them civilians and policemen.

"Approximately at 7:45 pm (1645 GMT) yesterday, an M2 Bradley on a routine patrol struck a landmine, resulting initially in two wounded... One died later in hospital," U.S. Major Gordon Tate told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The death raises to 94 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was declared over on May 1, while another 98 have died in non-combat incidents, according to an AFP toll.

Governor Survived

Meanwhile, the governor of Iraq's Diyala province escaped an assassination attempt Monday when a roadside bomb exploded, seriously wounding two policemen and lightly injuring a civilian, a local police officer said.

"It was an assassination attempt. Governor Abdullah Shahad al-Jaburi was going to work when a bomb detonated between 9:00 and 9:30 am (0600 and 0630 GMT). They know he travels this way every day," AFP quoted Police Lieutenant Ali Mahmmoud as saying.

The blast occurred near the governor's home in al-Moqdadiyah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, which borders Iran and is around 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Two policemen were seriously wounded and a 50-year-old man was also injured, Mahmmoud said, while the governor emerged unscathed.

The policemen were in a separate car as part of the governor's convoy, the policeman added.

More Iraqis Killed

Elsewhere in Iraq, two Iraqis, including a policeman, were killed Monday and three others wounded in two separate attacks in Karbala and Baghdad.

The policeman was killed and several civilians injured when unknown attackers hurled a grenade attack on an Iraqi checkpoint in the town of Hindiya, on the way to Karbala, according to IOL correspondent.

Another Iraqi was killed and three others wounded, including a policeman, in a firefight with U.S. forces near the town of Baqubah northeast of Baghdad, a police officer said.

The shootout occurred after U.S. troops arrested 20 people during a house-to-house search in the village of Zagenia, 15 kilometers (10 miles) north of Baqubah, police officer Taha Abdul Kader told AFP.

He said the Americans removed the body of the man killed in the firefight.

The Baqubah area, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, is the site of frequent attacks on U.S. troops occupying Iraq.