Print

Mail

wiki links

Violence continues in restive Iraq

PHOTO: AP

The disquieting drumbeat of guerrilla-style attacks and sabotage deepened in Iraq, with a US soldier killed in an ambush, another shot in the neck and an 11-year-old Iraqi boy gunned down by American troops who mistook him for a gunman.

The latest violence occurred just after 11pm on Friday, when attackers fired on a US convoy making its way through the predominantly Shiite Thawra neighborhood of northeast Baghdad. One American soldier was killed and four were wounded, said military spokesman Sergeant Patrick Compton.

A civilian Iraqi interpreter was also wounded, he said.

The torrent of attacks and ever-harsher US crackdowns is sparking frustration on both sides. Since Thursday, at least three US soldiers have been killed, with a fourth dying in a non-combat accident. Two US soldiers remained missing yesterday, four days after their apparent abduction from a guard post north of the capital.

Saboteurs also have been attacking Baghdad's power grid and oil pipelines, foiling coalition efforts to restore basic services like water and electricity as temperatures climb as high as 47?C.

The daily bloodshed has overshadowed the progress made since the end of the war May 1. Iraq's vital oil industry has resumed, if only at a fraction of its prewar output, and will be pumping much-needed dollars into state coffers.

Even something as simple as an evening concert is seen as a victory in Baghdad, an occupied city with tanks on its streets whose darkened nights have become roaming grounds for bandits, and whose frustrated residents have largely been living by candle light.

Iraq's National Symphony Orchestra held its first concert since Saddam's ouster on Friday, performing a patriotic song that predates the former dictator, and was rarely played during his brutal, 35-year reign. Saddam didn't like the song, My Nation, which contains no mention of the strongman or his Baath party loyalists.

Many of the Iraqis present had tears in their eyes. US soldiers, some sitting with their guns, clapped after the performance, and Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, stood in respect.

Still, the killing and wounding of Iraqi civilians has heightened distress over the US occupation -- resentment felt by Iraqis who welcomed the fall of Saddam as well as by Saddam loyalists blamed for violence against US forces.

Some Iraqi civilians have died in anti-American attacks, such as two national electricity workers killed on Thursday when ambushers threw grenades at a US-led convoy.

In Friday's civilian death, however, US soldiers in western Baghdad thought they were shooting at a possible attacker carrying an AK-47 assault rifle. Instead, they killed a boy on the roof of his home.

"The soldiers determined the situation was hostile and engaged the individual," said US military spokesman Major Sean Gibson. "It was not until after the search was under way that they discovered that it was an 11-year-old boy."

The US civil affairs officer shot in the neck was critically wounded and underwent surgery on Friday.

A man with a pistol shot the soldier at close range and fled through the market crowds, said Ammar Saad, a 44-year-old vendor.

The soldiers wounded in the convoy attack late on Friday were evacuated to a combat support hospital, Compton said. No arrests were made and no further details were immediately available.

Meanwhile, the military searched by ground and air for the two missing serviceman and their Humvee, as US interrogators questioned at least six men arrested in the disappearance.

"We don't know if they were abducted or they were just killed," Compton said.
This story has been viewed 1935 times.