Iraqi killed as bomb misses US patrol

A HOMEMADE bomb exploded yesterday in Baghdad, missing an American military patrol but killing at least one Iraqi and injuring 18 others as it destroyed two civilian buses.

Also yesterday, American troops killed four Iraqis in two separate engagements near Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit and seized about 1,000 rounds of ammunition in a raid around the nearby village of Uja, where the ousted leader was born.

The bombing took place in the Kazimiyah district, a commercial and residential neighbourhood of north-central Baghdad.

The American vehicles escaped damage but two buses were destroyed, according to Iraqi police lieutenant Awas Ibrahim. Hospital officials reported that five of the injured were in critical condition.

American troops face a growing threat of attack by roadside bombs, most of them remotely controlled so that attackers can detonate them from a distance as convoys pass. Such devices, many undetonated, are discovered almost daily around this city of 5 million people.

The presence of improvised bombs marks a new and dangerous tactic in Iraqi resistance against the US military occupation. American and Iraqi officials blame the resistance on remnants of Saddam’s regime.

In the Tikrit area, American troops came under fire twice early yesterday but suffered no casualties, according to Major Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division.

The troops called in an AC-130 gunship after seven Iraqis attacked an oil pumping station near Balad, just south of Tikrit. At least one Iraqi died when the gunship opened fire on his car.

Also near Balad, a patrol killed three Iraqis waiting in ambush with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, the military said.

American troops have been carrying out near-daily raids in the Tikrit area following a co-ordinated attack by Iraqi resistance fighters on September 19 that killed three American soldiers. The raids have resulted in dozens of arrests and follow-up raids.

Saddam loyalists have also been blamed for the assassination attempt Saturday on a woman member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Aquila al-Hashimi, who was shot by at least six men in a pick-up truck while driving near her Baghdad home.

Yesterday, a council spokesman, Entifadh Qanbar, said al-Hashimi’s condition had “deteriorated dramatically”.

Al-Hashimi, a career diplomat and member of a prominent Shi’ite Muslim family, was preparing to leave for this week’s UN General Assembly in New York when she was ambushed.