Soldier killed in attack in Baghdad suburb

ASSAILANTS fired rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint in Baghdad’s southwestern suburbs, killing one US paratrooper and wounding another, a military statement said yesterday.

It said the soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade were manning a weapons collection on Tuesday afternoon when a van pulled up about 250 yards from the checkpoint and a number of men exited.

They fired two RPG rounds at the squad and then fled down the alleyway, the statement released by the US Central Command said.