28/07/2003

US soldier killed in Baghdad attack

It has been reported that a US soldier has been killed and three others injured in an ambush in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, today.

If those reports are confirmed, it will bring to five the number of US troops killed in the past 24 hours.

Reuters reported today that a hand grenade was lobbed from a bridge as a US army humvee vehicle passed beneath. The explosion killed one soldier outright, it was reported.

The incident follows on from a botched raid by US forces last night when members of Task Force 20 – the elite unit that allegedly killed Uday and Qusay Hussein last week – killed five Iraqi civilians. Another eight civilians have been reported injured.

The deaths occurred when the unit sprang an ambush against suspected Ba'athist party officials. Two cars with the civilians on board were then caught in a crossfire in Mansur, western Baghdad.

The level of resistance put up by Iraqi fighters is rising – and US central command says that their troops are attacked around a dozen times a day. But those attacks are becoming more daring and deadly – with 16 US personnel dying in ambushes and from sniper fire in the past 10 days.

In total, 104 members of the US armed forces have died since the war was declared over on May 1 – 49 of those were combat-related deaths.

(GMcG)

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