A US soldier and an Iraqi were killed and another 10 US servicemen were injured in a spate of attacks in Baghdad today, military officials said.
US officials are also looking into reports two US soldiers and their vehicle were missing. The rising number of attacks underscores resistance to US and British occupying forces nearly three months after the ousting of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The US military said one special forces soldier was killed and eight others wounded today after coming under fire in the southwest of the capital. It gave no other details.
Earlier in the day the military said unidentified Iraqis had hit two US targets in Baghdad, killing an Iraqi driver, wounding two US soldiers and wrecking a military truck.
Today's attacks bring to 20 the number of Americans killed since US President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1st.
Six British troops were shot dead in southern Iraq on Tuesday. The Americans and British blame most of the attacks on Saddam loyalists. In one attack today, a rocket-propelled grenade hit a tractor trailer in a military convoy on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, wounding two soldiers, a US military spokesman said.
US soldiers opened fire but no one appeared to have been hit, witnesses at the scene said. "There was an explosion... The Americans started shooting indiscriminately," said Qassem Hassan, selling soft drinks about 30 metres (30 yards) from the wreckage.
After the attack, young boys and older men in traditional Iraqi clothing hurled stones at the wreckage.