More attacks on US troops
US-led occupation troops had little respite in Iraq on Wednesday as resistance attacks continued to target them.
Aljazeera’s correspondent reported that a US military convoy was hit by an explosion near the al-Sadiqiyah bridge between Ramadi and Falluja west of Baghdad.
Quoting eyewitnesses, he said the US soldiers opened fire randomly after the blast, injuring several Iraqi civilians who were then taken to hospital.
Another US convoy came under a RPG attack in al-Tarmiyah district to the north of Baghdad. The attack left a military vehicle damaged and several US soldiers wounded.
US forces also came under mortar attack in the outskirts of Belad, 65 km north of the Iraqi capital.
Though no casualties were reported, thick black smoke was seen billowing from a US military camp.
Civilians killed
That Iraq remained a hostile territory for the occupation forces was emphasised by the spate of attacks.
A roadside bomb during the day tore through two commuter buses in capital Baghdad, killing an Iraqi and wounding around 20.
The bomb apparently was aimed at the US troops.
Another blast in the northern city of Mosul ripped through a cinema hall, causing several casualties.
“A grenade exploded inside the cinema. Twenty people were injured, two were killed,” said an officer at the police station nearest to the cinema.
Fighters killed
US troops meanwhile claimed to have killed nine Iraqi fighters, the biggest toll for more than a month, in scattered action over northern Iraq in the past 24 hours.
A US military spokesman said that a financier of the Iraqi resistance was also arrested and nearly 40 other fighters detained.
Most of the action was said to be in the north and south of Tikrit, the home town of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.