- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb
exploded in the middle of a busy Baghdad road on Friday, killing one American
soldier and at least four Iraqis as a military convoy and a packed minibus
passed in opposite directions, police and witnesses said.
-
- The attack came ahead of a visit to Iraq by Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the war that toppled president Saddam
Hussein but now under fire over the chaos that has ensued. He is expected
to arrive on Saturday.
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- Police said 16 Iraqis were also wounded in the Baghdad
blast, one of two bombings on U.S. convoys in the capital, as Muslims headed
to mosques for Friday prayers. There were no casualties in the other attack.
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- In the fatal attack, the U.S. military said in a statement
that the device exploded between the first and second vehicles of the three-vehicle
convoy, killing one soldier.
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- The minibus was badly damaged in the blast, with all
its windows blown out. Pools of blood stained the floor of the wreckage.
The blast also blew out shop windows around the area and left a large crater
in the street.
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- Iraqi police Captain Sami Hadi at the scene said the
blast was caused by a mine planted near a busy market place and a popular
mosque in an area of the city known as new Baghdad.
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- "The mine was exploded by remote control,"
Hadi said. "These are terrorists, they don't care if there are Iraqis
around."
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- The attack raised to 190 the number of U.S. soldiers
killed in action in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on
May 1. Scores of Iraqis have also died in almost daily attacks by anti-American
insurgents or from U.S. fire.
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- The latest attacks come a day after the United States
urged NATO to consider a more robust role in Iraq.
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