CatoCooper13
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AFP - Deadly violence in occupied Iraq struck the capital and the volatile city of Fallujah, with a US soldier killed by a grenade and a police chief gunned down in broad daylight.
In Baghdad, specialist Anthony Reinoso said a soldier from the 1st Armoured Division was fatally wounded when his unit was attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade at 1.10am (0710 AEST Tuesday).
"He was evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital and subsequently died," Reinoso said, adding the name of the soldier would be withheld until his family was notified.
The trooper became the 76th US soldier killed in action by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein or foreign militants since May 1, when US President George W Bush declared an end to major combat operations.
That death was the sixth combat fatality in seven days and the second since US Secretary of State Colin Powell flew into Iraq with a warning that terrorists threatened to undermine efforts to reconstruct the country.
"The major new threat are the terrorists who are trying to infiltrate the country for the purpose of destroying this very hopeful process," he said after arriving on Monday. "We will not allow that to happen."
However, those efforts were dealt another blow with the killing of the police chief from Khaldiyah town, Colonel Khdayyir Ali Mukhlif, who was gunned down by three men in a white pick-up truck.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jalal Sabri, in charge of police patrols in Fallujah, said Mukhlif and two sergeants were hit about 2pm (2000 AEST) by the three gunmen who had covered their heads with traditional Arab headdress.
He said the two sergeants suffered serious wounds after the three policemen -- part of US attempts to establish a national Iraqi police force -- were hit in their vehicle while leaving Fallujah for Khaldiyah.
He named the two sergeants as Rabih Kannan and Fuad Fadel.
Khaldiyah, 30kmwest of the notoriously violent Fallujah, is part of a Sunni Muslim tribal belt where loyalty to Saddam has sorely tested US occupying forces.
On Saturday, the US military issued an apology after US troops killed nine security guards from Fallujah the previous day as the guards were apparently engaged in a high-speed car chase.
However, there are wide discrepancies in the version of events given by the US-led coalition and residents in Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad.
A group of masked men, describing themselves as anti-US resistance forces, on Saturday warned the deaths of the security guards would be avenged.
One US soldier was killed and another three wounded in Fallujah on Sunday when the convoy they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb.
US mettle was also tested near Baquba, where residents said an Iraqi was shot and later died after he mistook American soldiers for thieves.
Sami Hassan Saref, snatched up a rifle and was shot dead after US forces on entered his house in Mikdadya, 45km west of Baquba, Ahmad Mansur Karim, a shopkeeper, said.
He told AFP troops had begun searching the house about 1.30am and 35-year-old Saref thought he was being robbed.
Karim, 37, said US soldiers immediately took Saref to hospital near Baquba, 66km north-east of Baghdad, where he later died from his wounds.
©AAP 2003
In Baghdad, specialist Anthony Reinoso said a soldier from the 1st Armoured Division was fatally wounded when his unit was attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade at 1.10am (0710 AEST Tuesday).
"He was evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital and subsequently died," Reinoso said, adding the name of the soldier would be withheld until his family was notified.
The trooper became the 76th US soldier killed in action by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein or foreign militants since May 1, when US President George W Bush declared an end to major combat operations.
That death was the sixth combat fatality in seven days and the second since US Secretary of State Colin Powell flew into Iraq with a warning that terrorists threatened to undermine efforts to reconstruct the country.
"The major new threat are the terrorists who are trying to infiltrate the country for the purpose of destroying this very hopeful process," he said after arriving on Monday. "We will not allow that to happen."
However, those efforts were dealt another blow with the killing of the police chief from Khaldiyah town, Colonel Khdayyir Ali Mukhlif, who was gunned down by three men in a white pick-up truck.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jalal Sabri, in charge of police patrols in Fallujah, said Mukhlif and two sergeants were hit about 2pm (2000 AEST) by the three gunmen who had covered their heads with traditional Arab headdress.
He said the two sergeants suffered serious wounds after the three policemen -- part of US attempts to establish a national Iraqi police force -- were hit in their vehicle while leaving Fallujah for Khaldiyah.
He named the two sergeants as Rabih Kannan and Fuad Fadel.
Khaldiyah, 30kmwest of the notoriously violent Fallujah, is part of a Sunni Muslim tribal belt where loyalty to Saddam has sorely tested US occupying forces.
On Saturday, the US military issued an apology after US troops killed nine security guards from Fallujah the previous day as the guards were apparently engaged in a high-speed car chase.
However, there are wide discrepancies in the version of events given by the US-led coalition and residents in Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad.
A group of masked men, describing themselves as anti-US resistance forces, on Saturday warned the deaths of the security guards would be avenged.
One US soldier was killed and another three wounded in Fallujah on Sunday when the convoy they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb.
US mettle was also tested near Baquba, where residents said an Iraqi was shot and later died after he mistook American soldiers for thieves.
Sami Hassan Saref, snatched up a rifle and was shot dead after US forces on entered his house in Mikdadya, 45km west of Baquba, Ahmad Mansur Karim, a shopkeeper, said.
He told AFP troops had begun searching the house about 1.30am and 35-year-old Saref thought he was being robbed.
Karim, 37, said US soldiers immediately took Saref to hospital near Baquba, 66km north-east of Baghdad, where he later died from his wounds.
©AAP 2003