- BAGHDAD (AP) -- Insurgents
detonated a bomb alongside a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad on Friday,
killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said. Separately,
another soldier died in Baghdad from what was described as a "non-hostile"
gunshot wound.
-
- The bomb attack occurred at 6:30 a.m. in Ramadi, about
60 miles west of the Iraqi capital, the U.S. Central Command said. One
of the injured soldiers was evacuated to a combat hospital and died of
his wounds. His name, and the names of the wounded, were withheld pending
notification of next of kin.
-
- Also Friday, a bomb made from a land mine exploded on
the outskirts of the southern city of Mahaweel as a 19-person Polish convoy
drove by Friday, wounding two soldiers.
-
- Warrant Officer Tomasz Kloc was seriously wounded in
the stomach and was evacuated to Baghdad, 45 miles to the north, while
Sgt. Boguslaw Wasik suffered less severe injuries and was treated at the
scene, Maj. Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz told Poland's TVN24 television.
-
- Two other coalition soldiers were slightly injured earlier
Friday when Iraqi insurgents fired at least two projectiles, possibly mortar
shells, at coalition headquarters in Baghdad. A coalition spokeswoman said
she did not know their nationalities.
-
- A building in the so-called "Green Zone", the
downtown area housing coalition headquarters, was slightly damaged in the
attack, the first on the U.S. seat of power since the Americans mounted
a counteroffensive against insurgents last month.
-
- "I heard what appeared to be incoming mortar rounds,"
Charles Krohn, a U.S. defense spokesman, said from his room inside the
Green Zone. "I was shaken and I heard a couple of thumps. I felt the
vibrations."
-
- The zone includes the Al-Rasheed Hotel, which was rocketed
Oct. 26 in an attack that killed a U.S. colonel and wounded 18 other people.
Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in the hotel at the time
but escaped injury.
-
- Also, the U.S. military said a soldier from the 1st Armored
Division in Baghdad died early Friday of a "non-hostile gunshot wound."
There were no further details, and an investigation was under way.
-
- Meanwhile, the president of Iraq's Governing Council,
Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, and at least two other members of the council left
Friday for Spain - the start of a European tour that also will include
France, Germany and Britain. The reason for the trip was not announced
in Baghdad.
-
- In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said Friday that
the Iraqi delegation is to attend a meeting organized by MEDEF, France's
main employer's organization.
-
- French executives hope to press their business interests
in Iraq despite a U.S. ban on reconstruction contracts for nations that
opposed the war.
-
- French President Jacques Chirac was a top critic of the
war.
-
- The ministry said the Iraqi delegation will also hold
talks with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin to discuss "the
prospects for change in the country," after the U.S.-led administration
hands sovereignty to a transitional government next July.
-
- Other members of the Governing Council said Friday that
they may ask the U.S. military to expel 3,800 paramilitaries of the Mujahedeen
Khalq, Iranians who oppose their government and who operate from Iraq.
-
- "We might ask the Americans because they have the
military capabilities," Governing Council member Dara Noor al-Din
said. "We don't have an army and the police force isn't well enough
equipped to face the Mujahedeen."
-
- The U.S.-appointed council has no plans to hand the Mujahedeen
Khalq members over to Iran, where they are wanted for terrorist attacks,
Iraqi officials said.
-
-
-
- The Mujahedeen Khalq has for years sought to topple Iran's
clerical government. During Saddam Hussein's rule, Mujahedeen Khalq fighters
were believed to have taken part in some of Saddam's campaigns to suppress
Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite Muslim communities.
-
- Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
-
- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736
&e=2&u=/ap/20031213/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
-
|
