BAGHDAD, 8 June 2003 — One US soldier was killed and four wounded yesterday in a hit-and-run guerrilla attack near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, a stronghold of Saddam Hussein loyalists, the US military said.
It was the second deadly assault on US troops in three days and came despite a new deployment of more than 1,000 US soldiers to quell the unrest which has dogged the American occupation since Saddam was ousted two months ago.
US Central Command said the assault took place yesterday morning near the northern city, which lies in a region that has seen a spate of anti-US attacks in the past few weeks. The soldiers were hit with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, it said in a statement, without giving further details.
A similar attack claimed the life of one US soldier and left five wounded on Thursday in the city of Fallujah, another bastion of anti-US resentment. The US-led coalition has blamed Saddam loyalists for most of the attacks. A total of 28 US service personnel have died in fighting or accidents in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared the war on Iraq effectively over on May 1, according to an AFP toll.
Centcom said another soldier was killed north of Baghdad on Friday and two more wounded in a vehicle accident.
Military commanders have insisted that there is no organized resistance against the US-led coalition troops but many Iraqis have vowed to shed blood to force them to leave the country.
An armed Iraqi was shot dead on Friday when he tried to escape a roadblock near the southern town of Al-Qurnah, the Danish defense command said.
Denmark has more than 350 soldiers under British command in Iraq as part of the coalition force.
Coalition ground forces commander Lt. Gen. David McKiernan announced Wednesday that he was deploying troop reinforcements to northern and western Iraq to try to stem the attacks.
“We are applying additional military resources and forces to enable us to identify and address these anti-coalition and, I might add, anti-Iraqi elements,” he said.
