U.S. Troops Face New Wave of Attacks; Postwar Casualties Rise

An American soldier was shot in the neck at close-range while shopping for videos in a Baghdad shop on Friday, Iraqi witnesses told news agencies.

The shop owner, Ammar Saad, 44, and other witnesses told news agencies that a gunman shot the soldier in the neck at close range and then immediately disappeared into the crowded marketplace.

Saad said two other U.S. troops came and carried away the soldier, who appeared to be dead.

“He took out dollars from his pocket and as I looked at the money I heard a bang. He froze and then fell backwards,” the shop owner told Reuters Television. “Two other soldiers came in, picked him up and took him away.”

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Sean Gibson said the soldier was shot while doing an assessment of the area. He was in critical condition at a combat support hospital, Gibson said.

Additional injuries were reported early Friday morning after a U.S. army truck hit an explosive device on a dirt road, just northwest of Baghdad. A U.S. soldier and a witness said an undetermined number of wounded Americans were evacuated by helicopter. U.S. military officials have not confirmed the incident.

Since Thursday, at least three U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq, two of them in separate attacks against U.S.-led occupation forces, military officials confirmed.

One special operations soldier was killed and eight others were injured after coming under fire near Baghdad on Thursday, according to a U.S. Central Command press statement. Their names have not been released.

In a separate incident, a U.S. soldier attached to the First Marine Expeditionary Force was shot while investigating a car theft near Najaf. The name of the soldier is being withheld until family notification, according to a U.S. Central Command press statement.

Coalition officials also confirmed that a Marine was killed and two others were injured on Wednesday in a vehicle accident. The Marines were on the way to assist other coalition forces that had come under attack.

Meanwhile, U.S. military officials arrested six Iraqis in connection with the disappearance of two servicemen, who have been missing since June 25.

Sgt. Patrick Compton, a military spokesman based in Baghdad, said U.S. forces launched air and ground searches that have so far failed to locate the two American soldiers, or their Humvee and weapons.

The special operations soldiers were guarding a rocket demolition site near the town of Taji, according to a Defense Department press release. U.S. officials said the demolition site is situated within the “Sunni Triangle,” a region between the cities of Tikrit, Baghdad and Ar Ramadi, considered by defense officials to be a hotbed of Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The two soldiers were first reported missing Wednesday night after they did not answer a radio call.

“We don’t know if they were abducted or they were just killed,” Compton said.

A total of 27 British and U.S. military personnel have been killed in hostile incidents since President Bush declared the end of major combat in Iraq May 1.

In Washington, D.C., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blamed the latest attacks on criminals and former regime and Baathist-party sympathizers. Rumsfeld also dismissed concerns the hostilities would escalate into a guerrilla war.

“They are out doing things that are unhelpful to the coalition, and that the coalition is taking every step possible to root them out,” Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld spoke to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Senate members about the mounting coalition casualties during postwar operations.