U.S. Soldier Killed, More Blasts Rock Baghdad

U.S. Soldier Killed, More Blasts Rock Baghdad

Additional Reporting By Aws al-Sharqi, Subhy Haddad, IOL Correspondents

BAGHDAD, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - One U.S. soldier
was killed Sunday night, November 9, as U.S. forces went on the offensive
over the past two days, shelling Iraqi homes and rounding up scores of
Iraqis in a desperate bid to control the mounting Iraqi resistance.

More powerful explosions were heard in the Iraqi capital earlier Monday,
November 10, and Sunday night on an almost nightly basis since the end of
October.

The soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack south of
Baghdad, a military spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday.

"One soldier was killed yesterday (Sunday) at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT)," she said.

"He is from the 18th Military Police Brigade. He was killed in a
rocket-propelled grenade attack west of Iskandariya," about 40 kilometers
(25 miles) south of the capital, she said, without giving further details.

"There are no reports of incidents for today," the spokeswoman added.

The death took to 148 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat in Iraq
since May 1, when Washington declared major combat over, according to an AFP
count.

The toll does not include the six killed when a Black Hawk helicopter was
forced down  Friday, November 7, as investigation continue into the cause.

Explosions

Signaling the continued instability in postwar Iraq, more shuddering
explosions were heard Monday and Sunday in Baghdad for the third consecutive
day.

A strong explosion was heard in the Iraqi capital early Monday, believed to
have targeted a U.S. convoy northwest of the city, eyewitnesses told
IslamOnline.net.

On Sunday night, a series of blasts was also clearly heard in the Iraqi
capital. It was not clear where the blasts occurred, but an eyewitness told
IOL that the explosions were heard near the Green Zone in Baghdad, targeting
the U.S. occupation forces' headquarters at the presidential compound.

Another eyewitness said that U.S. armored vehicles and patrols paced up and
down the area of the Unknown Soldier, which leads to the presidential
compound.

The headquarters came under  a mortar attack by Iraqi fighters late Saturday
night, according to police sources said.

Warplane Swoops

 Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. warplanes dropped three 500-pound bombs near the
flashpoint town of Fallujah in retaliation for two resistance attacks on
U.S. patrols that left three injured, the U.S. army announced in a
statement.

The first patrol, which was passing nearby Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad,
came under an RPG attack that left three U.S. soldiers wounded.

Shortly afterwards, a U.S. F-16 dropped a 500-pound bomb on Iraqis who
opened fire at the second patrol.

The two other bombs, the statement said, were dropped near a house used in
"hostile activities" at the area where Iraqi fighters had shot down  a
Chinook helicopter on November 2, killing 16 U.S. soldiers.

The bombings followed a similar show of force by the Fourth Infantry
Division near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, after the Black Hawk helicopter
was crashed to the ground.

The crash killed six soldiers and led some officers to speculate the
helicopter had been shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, though military
spokesmen insisted they did not yet know what caused the downing.

Furthermore, U.S. helicopters bombarded a small town between the towns of
Tikrit and Beiji on the way of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, some 420km
north of Baghdad, an eyewitness told IOL.

"I saw U.S. helicopters attack the town while on my way from Baghdad to
Mosul at 05:00 p.m. (14:00 GMT) and I saw houses damaged by the raids," he
told IOL's correspondent, but he failed to report any casualties.

Arrests

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has arrested more than 140 people in a 24-hour
period, including 35 suspects in last month's attack on the Rashid hotel
housing visiting U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, reported AFP.

Wolfowitz escaped uninjured  on October 26, when several heavy rockets hit
the landmark Rashid hotel in Baghdad, killing at least one U.S. soldier and
injuring 15 others.

U.S. forces stormed areas around Baghdad and north and west of the capital
Sunday, November 9, in a major swoop on Iraqi fighters, a senior U.S.
officer told AFP.

"We detained a total of 35," he said, referring the Rashid suspects and
identifying them all as "former regime loyalists."

He revealed that the men were rounded up in an early Saturday, November 8,
raid on Baghdad's ritzy Mansour district by four companies from the U.S.
army's First Armoured Division.

He described them as a collection of financiers, weapon makers and
commanders of "guerrilla-style" cells that were planning major attacks on
"the coalition."

Ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn raid, the army sent out Iraqi informants to
track and locate where some of the suspects lived.

"Both the number and the intensity of our targeted raids continue to
increase as we take the fight to the enemy within the Baathist heartland," a
military spokesman said, referring to strongholds of ousted Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein.

Iraq's Interior Minister Nouri Badran told reporters that that Iraqi police
have arrested an unspecified number of Arabs, most of them from Saudi Arabia
and Syria.

He said that the detainees have sneaked through Iraq to carry out subversive
and terrorist" acts in the country.

Additionally, the assassins who killed an intelligence officer at the
Spanish Embassy in Baghdad last month have been arrested by Iraqi police, an
Iraqi judge told Al-Zaman newspaper in an interview printed Monday.

 Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. warplanes dropped three 500-pound bombs near the
flashpoint town of Fallujah in retaliation for two resistance attacks on
U.S. patrols that left three injured, the U.S. army announced in a
statement.

The first patrol, which was passing nearby Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad,
came under an RPG attack that left three U.S. soldiers wounded.

Shortly afterwards, a U.S. F-16 dropped a 500-pound bomb on Iraqis who
opened fire at the second patrol.

The two other bombs, the statement said, were dropped near a house used in
"hostile activities" at the area where Iraqi fighters had shot down  a
Chinook helicopter on November 2, killing 16 U.S. soldiers.

The bombings followed a similar show of force by the Fourth Infantry
Division near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, after the Black Hawk helicopter
was crashed to the ground.

The crash killed six soldiers and led some officers to speculate the
helicopter had been shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade, though military
spokesmen insisted they did not yet know what caused the downing.

Furthermore, U.S. helicopters bombarded a small town between the towns of
Tikrit and Beiji on the way of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, some 420km
north of Baghdad, an eyewitness told IOL.

"I saw U.S. helicopters attack the town while on my way from Baghdad to
Mosul at 05:00 p.m. (14:00 GMT) and I saw houses damaged by the raids," he
told IOL's correspondent, but he failed to report any casualties.

Arrests

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has arrested more than 140 people in a 24-hour
period, including 35 suspects in last month's attack on the Rashid hotel
housing visiting U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, reported AFP.

Wolfowitz escaped uninjured  on October 26, when several heavy rockets hit
the landmark Rashid hotel in Baghdad, killing at least one U.S. soldier and
injuring 15 others.

U.S. forces stormed areas around Baghdad and north and west of the capital
Sunday, November 9, in a major swoop on Iraqi fighters, a senior U.S.
officer told AFP.

"We detained a total of 35," he said, referring the Rashid suspects and
identifying them all as "former regime loyalists."

He revealed that the men were rounded up in an early Saturday, November 8,
raid on Baghdad's ritzy Mansour district by four companies from the U.S.
army's First Armoured Division.

He described them as a collection of financiers, weapon makers and
commanders of "guerrilla-style" cells that were planning major attacks on
"the coalition."

Ahead of Saturday's pre-dawn raid, the army sent out Iraqi informants to
track and locate where some of the suspects lived.

"Both the number and the intensity of our targeted raids continue to
increase as we take the fight to the enemy within the Baathist heartland," a
military spokesman said, referring to strongholds of ousted Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein.

Iraq's Interior Minister Nouri Badran told reporters that that Iraqi police
have arrested an unspecified number of Arabs, most of them from Saudi Arabia
and Syria.

He said that the detainees have sneaked through Iraq to carry out subversive
and terrorist" acts in the country.

Additionally, the assassins who killed an intelligence officer at the
Spanish Embassy in Baghdad last month have been arrested by Iraqi police, an
Iraqi judge told Al-Zaman newspaper in an interview printed Monday.

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