More U.S. Fatalities In Iraq

A bomb blast east of the Karrada district killed one U.S. soldier and two Iraqi children. It also left injured five U.S. soldiers, their Iraqi interpreter and injured five others and eight Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members, a U.S. military spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"U.S. soldiers were on a mounted patrol and that’s when the improvised explosive device detonated east of the Karrada district. It happened at 10:13 am (0713 GMT)," said Corporal Todd Pruden of the First Armored Division.

"Two children were killed along with one U.S. soldier," Pruden said, adding that the soldiers were all from the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment.

In the restive Iraqi town of Fallujah, a second U.S. soldier was killed and three others wounded in a roadside bomb attack, the American military said.

"Today, a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed and three were wounded at 1 pm (1000 GMT) when their convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device northeast of Fallujah," west of Baghdad, said a military spokeswoman.

"The wounded were evacuated to a nearby medical facility," she said, without giving further details.

The latest death brings to 211 the number of soldiers killed in action in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, according to an AFP count.

Non-Stop Operation

Separately, the U.S. tough Iron Grip operation entered its fifth day with jet fighters and Apache helicopters shelling different parts of the Iraqi capital.

U.S. occupation troops cordoned off the suburb of Hour Rajab and al-Bouthia, media reports on the mind-boggling havoc wreaked by the onslaught, witnesses told IslamOnline.net.

"The U.S. forces are launching the most barbaric offensive on us in months…They are scorching our land, destroying homes and arresting youths," Mohammad al-Ethawi told IOL.

He said U.S. forces are used to making pre-dawn swoops on houses, which terrifies women and children.

"It appears as if we were living in the first days of the U.S. war," he said, adding that 150 members of his clan, al-Ethawi, have been arrested so far on charges of being resistance members and seizing weapons and mortars.

Sheikh Sanan Abdul Wahab hit out at the Interim Governing Council for their inaction on the U.S. policies against their people.

"And if the [U.S.-appointed] council is weak and helpless before the Americans, it can at least denounces the incessant aggression and the injustices done to the Iraqi families," he said.

Um Abdel Khalek, a housewife, believes that Iraq has become a replica of the Palestinian territories.

"Now we daily wake up to the roar of helicopters and sound of bomb, just like the Palestinians," she said as tears streamed down her cheeks.