Major Iraqi attack on US convoy

Several US occupation soldiers are believed to have died in the Iraqi town of Khaldiya in one of the fiercest resistance attacks to date.

US troops have failed to stem the resistance

The US convoy came under attack as it passed through the town on the way to Ramadi from Fallujah.

Witnesses said between three and eight soldiers were killed, Aljazeera’s correspondent reported, though no official confirmation was available.

“A bomb exploded underneath a troop transport. It caught fire. The rest of the convoy tried to continue and was hit by rocket-propelled grenades,” a local resident said.

The US military in Baghdad said it had no immediate reports on the incident.

As several vehicles in the  convoy attempted to push forward, they came under repeated fire over a stretch of few kilometres.

Some of the vehicles caught fire and the casualties were dragged from the wreckage, witnesses said.

Elsewhere, in Mosul in northern Iraq, Aljazeera reported that the local headquarters of the US forces had come under rocket-propelled grenade attack. There were no reports of casualties.

More trouble 

US  soldiers courted further trouble in Iraq, killing an Iraqi teenager and wounding four others in the flashpoint town of Fallujah.

The soldiers opened fire when their convoy drove near a house where a wedding was under way and shots were being fired in the air in celebration.

The heavy-handedness of the US troops have stoked further resentment among the locals against the occupation.

Fourteen-year old Sudian Dawud was shot dead, and four people including two women were wounded in the incident.

The wounded were transferred to the hospital in the town. Two cars were also damaged in the shooting.

The US troops apparently thought they were under fire and shot back in the direction of both the people taking part in the wedding and passers-by.

Trigger-happy

Under incessant attacks from Iraqi resistance fighters, US forces have been quick to pull the trigger and fire even on civilians.

Only last Saturday, the US military issued an apology after its soldiers gunned down, a day earlier, nine Iraqi security guards in Fallujah, in one of the worst instances of “friendly-fire”.

The heavy-handedness of the US troops have stoked further resentment among the locals against the occupation.

One US soldier was killed and three others wounded in a retaliatory attack in Fallujah, a day after the nine Iraqi guards were gunned down.

Source: News Agencies