U.S. Soldier Killed In Iraq

The gunman escaped, Gibson said, one day after the U.S. forces were plagued by more two separate attacks in the country.

The shooting also came on the second day of a major U.S. military mission, Operation Desert Scorpion, allegedly to seek out illegal weapons and track down resistance leaders.

Furious over the U.S. military presence which they insist to call all but occupation, most Iraqis felt American soldiers should pack up and leave their country, whose oil reserves are the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Further to fuelling anti-American sentiments, the U.S. occupation authorities, said the other stated aim of the operation, in which more than 400 civilians were captured in a perceived humiliation, is to provide humanitarian aid.

More than 40 U.S. soldiers were killed in sporadic attacks in Iraq since May 1, the day U.S. president declared an end to military strikes.

One correspondent, peering into a raided home, reportedly saw clothes and sheets scattered on the floor, drawers open with contents strewn, and a splintered wooden cupboard, the BBC News Online reported.

On Monday, Baghdad saw more two explosions. One was a landmine laid in a downtown tunnel. The other was a car bomb, in which a mother and daughter died in western Baghdad at an intersection where U.S. soldiers were manning a checkpoint earlier in the day.

There was no explanation for what caused the car blast, but one U.S. officer was quoted by Reuters as saying it was a suspected car bomb and that two soldiers had been hurt.

A U.S. military spokesman said that Americans would not routinely investigate such an incident unless it targeted U.S. troops.

Desert Scorpion follows another six-day offensive allegedly to clamp down on pro-Saddam fighters which killed at least 113 Iraqis, according to a tally from Iraqi witnesses and U.S. officials.