TIKRIT, Iraq, 20 October 2003 — Guerrillas killed two American soldiers overnight and blew up a US ammunition truck yesterday, as Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council called for an end to “conspiracies” threatening stability.
The latest attacks highlighted what the council called Iraq’s “dangerous security situation” ahead of this week’s conference in Madrid where donors will be asked to contribute to reconstruction costs estimated at $55 billion.
The US military said a patrol came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire late on Saturday near the northern oil city of Kirkuk. Two 4th Infantry Division soldiers were killed and one was wounded.
The deaths brought to 103 the number of US soldiers killed in hostile fire in Iraq since May 1.
In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a US military convoy yesterday morning, setting a truck carrying ammunition ablaze and sparking off a series of explosions, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.
The gunmen fired on US soldiers caught in the blast and American troops returned fire.
The explosions sent flaming shrapnel and plumes of black smoke into the air. Six wounded Iraqis were taken to hospital in Fallujah and one later died, hospital officials said.
A crowd of jubilant Iraqi men and boys gathered at the scene, shouting “Fallujah has destroyed the Americans!”
In Baquba, north of Baghdad, one Iraqi was killed and 19 were wounded when a roadside bomb planted to hit US forces exploded as Iraqi police were evacuating the area, a police officer in the town told Reuters. And US troops killed three Iraqis who had attacked their convoy in Hawija, south of Kirkuk, the military said.
