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One U.S. Soldier Killed in Attack
Bomb Destroys Diplomat's Empty Car in Separate Incident

Andrew Gray
Reuters
Monday, July 14, 2003; 1:29 PM


BAGHDAD - The United States lost its 32nd soldier in postwar combat in Iraq
Monday, underscoring the difficulties it faces in quashing resistance as a
Governing Council of local leaders began its work.

The U.S. military is braced for a surge in attacks this week to coincide
with anniversaries linked to ousted president Saddam Hussein, his Baath
Party and Iraqi nationalism.

A group which said it was an Iraqi branch of the al Qaeda network claimed
responsibility for attacks on U.S. soldiers in an audio tape broadcast
Sunday but its rhetoric sounded more typical of Saddam supporters than
Islamic militants.

A blast damaged an empty parked car used by the Tunisian ambassador Monday
afternoon but caused no casualties. Witnesses said drive-by attackers had
thrown a small bomb at the car but the U.S. military said the cause was not
yet clear.

The explosion took place a few hundred meters away from the compound housing
the new Governing Council in Baghdad and close to other buildings used by
the U.S.-led occupying authorities.

The 25-member Council, launched Sunday, decided Monday to send a delegation
to the United Nations Security Council and set up three committees to define
its priorities and procedures, including who should lead it.

TROOPS UNDER FIRE

In the latest attack on U.S. troops, assailants fired on a convoy in the
central al-Mansour area of Baghdad at around six a.m. (0200 GMT), the
military said.

Witnesses said one vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and another
by machinegun fire. Bloodstains on an armored Humvee vehicle and the
crumpled cab of an army truck bore testament to the attack.

Dozens of U.S. troops searched the area as helicopters hovered above.
Soldiers searching an abandoned house in the area found a light machinegun
probably used in the attack.

Thirty-two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since President Bush
declared major combat over on May 1.


© 2003 The Associated Press



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"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator." - GW Bush 12/18/2000.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
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---Theodore Roosevelt

"Feels Good!"
---George W. Bush on the Brink of Declaring War on Iraq.