Soldier and two Iraqis die in convoy attack
A bomb exploded near a Baghdad mosque as a US military convoy passed today, killing a soldier and two Iraqi civilians and injuring 13 others.
The soldier was travelling in a three-vehicle convoy when a roadside bomb exploded nearby, the US military said in a statement.
Most of the civilian casualties were passengers on a bus that was badly damaged in the explosion near the al-Samarrai mosque in the New Baghdad section of town.
Karim Abdullah Muslim, the head of emergency services at the nearby al-Kindi hospital, said a man and a woman died and 13 people were injured.
Haitham Rashid, a passenger on the bus, said about two dozen people were aboard the vehicle at the time of the blast.
Haidar Aziz Kazim, an 11-year-old schoolboy, said he had been shopping with his mother and aunt when the explosion happened.
“I blame Saddam Hussein for what happened,” said Kazim, who was in the hospital with wounds to his legs. “They are hurting ordinary Iraqis, not the Americans.”
Meanwhile, US troops cordoned off part of the main road after a fire destroyed an armoured personnel carrier in Mishada, 20 miles north of the capital. The US military said the fire that engulfed the vehicle was accidental.
Captain Brian Ridley said the explosion was caused by a faulty heater, which caused ammunition inside the vehicle to explode. There were no casualties, he said.
About 500 people rallied in central Baghdad to call for an end to terrorist attacks against civilians.
Protesters carried banners reading “No to terrorism” and expressed support for the US-led coalition governing Iraq.
In a Friday sermon in the town of Kufa south of Baghdad, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to call a general strike in the holy city of Najaf if US occupation forces do not set free members of his militia group by the start of the next Arabic month which falls in about 20 days.
Al-Sadr did not say how many militiamen of the group – known as Imam al-Mahdi’s Army – were in detention.
