US forces in Iraq were expecting more trouble today on the anniversary of the 1968 Baathist revolution that brought Saddam Hussein’s political party to power.

Iraqi fighters tried to shoot down a US transport plane with a surface-to-air missile, gunned down the mayor of an Iraqi city and killed an American soldier in a convoy, in a marked escalation of violence.

A US soldier, an eight-year-old Iraqi child, and a pro-American mayor and his son were killed yesterday as pro-Saddam Hussein insurgents unleashed a string of violent attacks on the eve of a recently banned Ba'ath Party holiday.