Guerrillas kill US soldier and Iraqi policeman
( 2003-12-09 08:45) (Agencies)
A U.S. soldier and an Iraqi policeman were killed in separate attacks on Monday as a number of South Korean contractors pulled out of Iraq and Bangladesh closed its embassy because of guerrilla warfare.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the U.S. Army in Iraq, said the soldier -- from the 101st Airborne Division -- was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul, which has seen an upsurge in attacks on American troops.
"There was a drive-by shooting by four Iraqis. They shot and killed him," Kimmitt told a news conference.
The shooting brought to 308 the number of American soldiers killed in action since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March to oust Saddam Hussein. A total of 193 have been killed since U.S. President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.
In another attack in Mosul on Monday, three U.S. soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division said. On Sunday, another roadside bomb in Mosul killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two. In Baquba, some 40 miles north of Baghdad, an Iraqi police bomb disposal expert was killed when a tank round planted on a busy street was detonated by remote control, a U.S. military commander in the city said.
IRAQIS INCREASINGLY TARGETED
Iraqi police and others seen to be working or cooperating with U.S.-led authorities are increasingly the target of the attacks, blamed by Washington on Saddam supporters and foreign Islamic fighters. Last month, 17 policemen were killed in twin bomb blasts in and near Baquba.
The U.S. military says the number of attacks has declined after a recent offensive against guerrillas. November was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war to overthrow Saddam was launched on March 20.
A group of South Korean electrical workers left Iraq on Monday for neighboring Jordan after guerrillas killed two of their colleagues late last month.
More than 40 contractors working for South Korea's Ohmu Electric Co Ltd on a project to rebuild Iraq's power infrastructure have left in the past two days in a blow to U.S.-led efforts to reconstruct the country.
Bangladesh said it had closed its embassy in Baghdad and evacuated its diplomats to Jordan after an e-mail threat to blow up the mission.
In Baghdad, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, president of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council, told Reuters steps were being taken to set up war crimes tribunals to try senior members of Saddam's ousted government.
"They will be in the hands of Iraqis, with an Iraqi criminal law. It's possible that there could be judges from abroad, the United Nations or other countries, as observers. These trials can be public, with representation by lawyers," Hakim said.
"All of this can assure the justice and scrupulousness of the tribunals," said Hakim, a cleric who heads Iraq's largest Shi'ite Muslim political movement in the country. Shi'ites, repressed under Saddam, form a majority of the population.
Many of those of who could face trial appear on the U.S. Army's 55 most-wanted list. Most have been detained, but Saddam remains at large with a $25 million bounty on his head.
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, commander of the 1-22 Battalion leading the hunt for Saddam around his home town Tikrit, said a dwindling group of a few dozen die-hard Saddam supporters was responsible for attacking U.S. troops.
A U.S. military spokeswoman said soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division found $1.9 million and fake ID cards when they raided the home of a suspected Saddam supporter in the town of Samarra.
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