BAGHDAD, 10 November 2003 — A US soldier was killed and a comrade wounded in a roadside blast in Baghdad, the US military said yesterday, and another bomb wounded a British soldier in the Iraqi southern city of Basra. The dead American was the 150th US soldier killed in action in Iraq since May 1.
Late last night several loud explosions echoed across central Baghdad, but there were no immediate details on what caused the blasts or if there were any casualties, witnesses said.
A US military spokeswoman said the soldier, from the 1st Armored Division, was killed on Saturday evening when his vehicle hit an explosive device in central Baghdad.
In Basra, a bomb planted near a hospital was detonated as a British convoy drove past yesterday, and one soldier was wounded in the hand, a spokesman said.
British troops in mainly southern Iraq have faced far fewer attacks than US forces in Baghdad and the surrounding region.
In Fallujah, US warplanes dropped three 500-pound bombs after three soldiers were wounded in an ambush and a second patrol came under fire, the military said yesterday.
The first patrol was hit by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and small arms fire, leaving three US troops wounded.
Later, an F-16 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on suspected combatants who fired on another patrol. Two more 500-pound bombs were then dropped in an open area “near a house associated with heightened enemy activity,” the military said in a statement.
Meanwhile, dozens of Saddam’s followers in Basra have been assassinated as they try to regroup and attack the coalition, the city’s security chief told AFP yesterday.
“There have been too many political assassinations, dozens of them,” said Col. Mohammad Kazem Ahmad Al-Ali, police director of internal security in Basra. “These were liquidations of senior members of the previous regime who had committed crimes against the people,” Ali said in an interview.
He declined to identify the perpetrators, but local residents said that members of the 20 to 30 political parties active in Basra have carried out the “revenge killings,” targeting ranking members of the Baath party.
In another development, Iraq’s interim Governing Council has ordered the confiscation of all assets and property of Saddam Hussein, his relatives and members of his deposed regime, an official statement said yesterday. The council decided during a meeting on Tuesday “to confiscate all moveable and non-moveable assets belonging to former regime officials, senior members of the disbanded Baath party, and security services,” it said.
