Iraq: An American soldier was killed in a bomb attack in broad daylight in Baghdad yesterday, bringing to 50 the number of US troops to die from hostile fire since Washington declared major combat over on May 1st.
The US military said three other troops were wounded when an "improvised explosive device" was dropped from a bridge onto a US convoy in the capital's Rashid district, the latest in an increasingly bold and deadly guerrilla campaign.
Fuelling a cycle of fear and resentment between American occupiers and ordinary Iraqis, people in Baghdad accused US troops of killing five passers-by on Sunday in what looked like a botched raid in the hunt for Saddam Hussein.
US spokesmen declined all comment on Sunday's incident, adding to an air of mystery over precisely what occurred.
The US commander in Iraq, Lieut Gen Ricardo Sanchez, warned the country was becoming a "terrorist magnet" and said attacks on his forces were becoming more sophisticated.
A previously unknown group, apparently Iraqi Muslim militants, said in a video tape aired on Arab television it would fight a "holy war" against US President Bush.
A masked gunman from the Salafist Jihad Group said: "America, you have declared war on God's soldiers . . . You will have no security or peace of mind as long as you are an infidel and fighting a war against Islam." About a third of the US deaths have occurred in the past 10 days alone, although US officers say the number of attacks is constant at an average of about a dozen a day.
Those behind the attacks remain unseen and US commanders have been playing down the possibility Saddam may be orchestrating them or that the killing of his once powerful sons a week ago should slow the attrition rate. Saddam, they say, has little room for manoeuvre as troops hunt him down.
As the quest goes on for him, however, US forces seem to be stumbling at times in their efforts to win friends among the vast majority of Iraqis who detested the old regime.
In Mansur, a smart district in western Baghdad, troops from the Task Force 20 special unit hunting Saddam raided a house on Sunday evening. But they came away empty-handed, leaving the shattered wrecks of cars that were shot up apparently in error - and seething neighbours.
US military spokesmen declined even to discuss the incident beyond confirming Task Force 20 was involved. Some troops tried to prevent journalists filming the aftermath.
Soldiers said five men died, one of them a teenager.
Several residents, interviewed on Monday, said the Americans had erected a single roadblock leading to the house but failed to prevent innocent motorists straying into the area from quiet side streets.
They accused the troops of firing machineguns at two cars, killing the occupants.
"In the beginning all the Iraqi people welcomed the Americans," said one middle-aged neighbour, who gave his name only as Mohammed. "But now the Americans have built a wall between themselves and the Iraqis."