US soldier, two civilians killed in Baghdad

AN American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb which ripped through his Humvee in Baghdad yesterday and at least two civilians died in shooting afterwards.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmit said shooting erupted from rooftops on both sides of the road in east Baghdad as soldiers returned to their stricken vehicle after removing their casualties from the scene.

Witnesses said four schoolchildren, all around 12, were killed in the gunfire but officials at a nearby hospital said they had received only the bodies of a man and a teenager.