US soldier killed by sniper fire in Iraq

A SNIPER killed a US soldier on patrol in Baghdad with a single shot, while gunmen targeted Iraqi officials in drive-by shootings designed to put them off co-operating with Americans, the military said yesterday.

The soldier from the 1st Armoured Division’s 1st Brigade was shot in the back as he rode in a Humvee, said brigade spokesman Lt Alex Kasarda. The gunman escaped.

Military officials said it was likely the bullet penetrated the soldier’s flak vest, possibly by entering at an angle that missed an armoured ceramic plate. The soldier’s name was withheld until his family could be notified.

Dozens of members of the dead soldier’s brigade raided a cafe and religious school in the same neighbourhood, a Sunni Muslim stronghold where resistance fighters have repeatedly ambushed US troops.

During the raid, American troops captured 31 Iraqi men but did not find the resistance ringleaders they sought. The Iraqis were released yesterday.

Kasarda said the two-vehicle convoy wasn’t involved in the raid, but was seeking a former Iraqi missile compound when the sniper’s bullet punctured the canvas top of the Humvee.

On Sunday, insurgents ambushed two US military convoys, wounding 10 soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqi civilians on a nearby bus.

About 50 American soldiers have died from hostile fire or in accidents in Iraq since the US declared major combat operations over on May 1.

In Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, suspected anti-American insurgents fired shots into the mayor’s office and the courthouse.

In the nearby town of Khaldiyah, gunmen fired into a police station overnight. There were no injuries reported.

US forces have restored the authority of local government agencies in the area, working closely with mayors to co-ordinate aid, paying judges’ salaries and rearming local police.

The shootings were the first known attacks directed against Iraqi officials for co-operating with US forces and represented a possible new front for the insurgents, American officials said.

“There is an element here that doesn’t want change and they see the coalition forces as bringing change in the form of freedom and democracy,” said Col David Perkins of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade.

“Anyone they think is helping with that change they are going to try to intimidate, and that won’t work.”