Two US soldiers die in attacks

TWO US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and a city to the west, the military reported yesterday. A third was reported to have died of a non-hostile gunshot wound in a separate incident.

In one incident, a soldier was killed and three were wounded in a roadside bombing in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad. The second death came in an attack on a military convoy in Baghdad.

The deaths brought to 281 the number of soldiers killed since the war began on March 20. Since President George W Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 143 US soldiers have died five more than during the heavy fighting.

Meanwhile, the international relief agency Oxfam said it had pulled its foreign staff out of Iraq because the group could no longer work safely in the country. "The risk level was becoming unacceptable for us, making it impossible for our programmes to operate," Simon Springett, Oxfam's programme manager for Iraq said.

Oxfam began withdrawing its 15 international staff members on Monday and completed the move within 48 hours, Mr Springett said. The London-based aid group had been working on water and sanitation projects with UNICEF in Iraq.

"I think there's been a blurring of humanitarian and military operations in Iraq," Mr Springett said. "It's setting a very dangerous precedent."

Also yesterday, a military court hearing began for four US soldiers accused of abusing prisoners of war at a camp in southern Iraq. The hearing on whether to press charges against the men took place at Camp Bucca near the port city of Umm Qasr.

The four Army reservists are accused of punching and kicking several Iraqis, breaking one man's nose, while escorting prisoners to a POW processing centre near Umm Qasr in May. The soldiers claim they acted in self-defence. Military officials have declined to name the reservists, but family members identified them as Staff Sergeant Scott McKenzie, 37, Sergeant Shawna Edmondson, 24, Special Tim Canjar, 21, and Master Sergeant Lisa Girman, 35.

And in northern Iraq, US troops continued raids against paramilitary forces, Saddam Hussein loyalists, Fedayeen Saddam militia and other subversive elements as part of Operation Ivy Needle, military officials said.

The operation has led to the capture of 390 Iraqis, 57 of whom were targeted as Saddam loyalists, Baath party members, and Saddam Fedayeen militia, according to 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle.

As the US death toll climbed, Mr Bush said the US would not back down in Iraq.

"We're on the offensive against terror, and we will stay on the offensive against terror," Mr Bush told veterans in St Louis. "We've adopted a new strategy for a new kind of war: We will not wait for known enemies to strike us again," he said. "We will strike them."