Iraqis killed in ‘attempted ambush’
11 Iraqis have been killed by US troops north of Baghdad, according to the US military.
The troops were responding to an attempted ambush on their convoy near the town of Balad, a spokesman said.
The killings follow the fatal shooting of a US soldier and the wounding of 21 people in two attacks in central Iraq yesterday.
The soldier was on a Bradley armoured vehicle guarding the national museum in Baghdad when a sniper reportedly fired. He was rushed to hospital but later died from his wounds.
In a separate incident yesterday near Balad, ten soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on an American military base.
Two more soldiers were wounded in an explosion in the Iraqi capital on Friday, casting a cloud over US Independence Day celebrations for the fourth of July.
Witnesses say that a blast targeted at the soldier’s Humvee vehicle on the outskirts of Baghdad injured the two Americans and an Iraqi civilian in his car.
Attacks on allied troops appear to be escalating and international peacekeeping forces have been moved into the region amid growing frustration at the continued occupation by US-UK forces.
Twenty-six American and six British soldiers have been killed in Iraq since major combat was declared over in May. The number of Iraqi combat fatalities remains unknown, but is likely to rank significantly higher.
Speaking earlier this week, the UK foreign secretary Jack Straw expressed optimism about the likely timeframe of a transferral of power to an Iraqi interim administration, suggesting that it may take place as soon as the middle of July.
And the US head of administration in Iraq announced yesterday that the government is offering $25 million (£15 million) for Saddam Hussein dead or alive.
The US military believes that the resistance from Iraqi fighters would slow down if Saddam was captured or killed.
