U.S. Soldier Killed, 19 Wounded In Iraq

"There was a shooting in Baghdad yesterday evening. A 1st Armored Division soldier was shot. He was initially evacuated to an aid station where he died," Major Sean Gibson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday, July 4.

"There was a mortar attack inside or near the U.S. base," near Balad, around 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad, Specialist Giovanni Lorente said.

"Initial reports suggest that 19 U.S. soldiers were wounded," he said, making no mention on their condition.

Friday – the U.S. Independence Day – marks end of a tough week for occupation forces in Iraq, amid rising waves of attacks coupled with anti-American sentiments thriving among local inhabitants.

On Thursday, July 3, ten soldiers were wounded in three separate attacks on American troops in Baghdad.

On Wednesday, July 2, the U.S. military said a Marine was killed and three others were injured while they were clearing a minefield near Karbala, southern Iraq.

On Tuesday, July 1, six U.S. soldiers were killed and four others injured in two separate attacks in central and southern Baghdad, few hours after an American helicopter gunship reportedly bombed a mosque in Fallujah killing ten Iraqis.

U.S. defense officials said more than 67 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq since May 1, when President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat.

Faced with a rising death toll and apparently increased armed resistance in the country, U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer was reported to have asked Washington for more troops to help.

U.S. President George Bush warned on June 21 that the U.S. forces in Iraq were facing a future of "danger and sacrifice".

Iraqis are furious that the U.S. forces have not make good on their promises to improve their situation, restore order and address growing unemployment rates to the war-impoverished country.

Locals were further irked by the U.S. occupation forces continued massive detentions and house-to-house searches, in which hundreds of civilians were rounded up under claims of allegiance to Saddam.

Also, people here suspect the aims of the U.S.-British invasion of the oil-rich country, as no alleged weapons of mass destruction – the main reason for launching the offensive – have been found so far in Iraq.