- FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) -
Guerrillas attacked an Iraqi police post with assault rifles and a grenade
Thursday, killing two policemen and a civilian, hours after a mortar attack
on a U.S. base killed two soldiers and wounded another.
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- Insurgents also opened fire Wednesday on a bus carrying
Iraqi women home from work at a military base west of Baghdad, killing
four women and wounding six others. All the attacks were in the volatile
"Sunni triangle" region around Baghdad.
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- The latest upsurge of violence came amid U.S. talk of
handing over political power to an Iraqi administration later this year
and a dispute over whether this should be done before or after elections
are held.
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- South of the capital near Diwaniya, a Spanish Civil Guard
police commander was shot in the head and seriously wounded during a joint
operation with Iraqi police against "members of a terrorist group,"
the Spanish Defense Ministry said.
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- Police near Falluja, a hotbed of resistance 30 miles
west of Baghdad, said guerrillas in a passing car lobbed a grenade and
opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles at a checkpoint on the highway to
the town of Ramadi.
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- "We were standing at our checkpoint and saw some
cars come by. From one of them, a grenade was thrown and Kalashnikovs were
fired at us," policeman Maher Mohammad said. He said the attackers
wore checkered headdresses around their faces.
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- Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the attack,
and five police were wounded. A pool of blood lay on the side of the highway,
along with a police vehicle pockmarked by bullets.
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- A U.S. military spokeswoman in Saddam Hussein's hometown
of Tikrit said mortars and rockets had been fired at an American base near
Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, Wednesday evening.
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- "Last evening, we had a mortar attack on a forward
operating base near Baquba which killed two soldiers from the 4th Infantry
Division and critically wounded another," Major Josslyn Aberle said,
adding that rockets were also used in the attack.
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- The deaths brought to 349 the number of U.S. soldiers
killed in action in Iraq since Washington launched a war in March to topple
Saddam. Including non-combat deaths, the toll is 505.
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- "We were able to identify where the attack came
from and responded by firing artillery shells at the location," Aberle
said. "There are no indications, however, that any insurgents were
killed in our assault."
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