Bush under fire as deaths mount

A US soldier, an eight-year-old Iraqi child, and a pro-American mayor and his son were killed yesterday as pro-Saddam Hussein insurgents unleashed a string of violent attacks on the eve of a recently banned Ba'ath Party holiday.

Also yesterday, Suspected Saddam Hussein followers fired a surface-to-air missile at a US Hercules military transport plane as it was landing at Baghdad International Airport.

The missile missed its target but it was another example of the ever increasing violence against Americans in Iraq.

The attack may also delay plans to reopen the airport to commercials flights.

The death of the soldier brought US combat fatalities so far to 147, the same as the total in the 1991 Gulf War. And the latest death heaped pressure on President George W Bush, facing mounting criticism for the cost of the war and accusations the United States exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons to justify the conflict.

The soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a supply convoy west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison, a US military spokesman said.

The grenade blasted into the soldier's truck, hurling him out, as the 20-vehicle convoy passed along a main highway yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, the pro-American mayor of Hadithah in western Iraq was shot and killed yesterday along with one of his nine sons.

A military spokesman said he could offer no other details, but the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera said Mohammed Nayil al-Jurayfi's car was shot up by unidentified attackers as he drove through the city of about 150,000 about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad.

US soldiers have come under increasingly ferocious attacks by suspected Saddam loyalists in recent weeks reaching an average of 12 attacks a day. A total of 33 US soldiers have been killed in hostile action since Mr Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

The attacks yesterday came a day before a holiday marking the 1968 coming to power of Saddam's now-dissolved Ba'ath Party.

US officials have warned of possible stepped up attacks to mark the anniversary, and the new Iraq Governing Council cancelled the holiday, along with others from Saddam's regime.

A half hour after the blast, the truck was still burning on the road near Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, site of Saddam's most notorious prison. The convoy, made up of reservists from a supply unit based in Puerto Rico, had been heading to a US base near the Jordanian border.

"We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough," said Spc. Carlos McKenzie, a member of the convoy.

In the attack that killed the Iraqi child, an assailant threw a grenade into a US military vehicle guarding a bank in the upscale al-Mansour neighbourhood in west Baghdad. The soldier was injured and taken to a military hospital along with four adult Iraqi bystanders who were also injured, said Major Kevin West.

"They're killing more Iraqis than they are Americans," he said.

In the south of Baghdad, an explosion badly damaged a US Humvee and three US casualties were seen being taken away. Also yesterday, a US Marine died in the southern city of Hilla when he fell from the roof of a building he was guarding, the military said. The soldier was taken to a hospital but died of his injuries.

Meanwhile, yesterday Senate Democrats blasted Mr Bush for the rising cost of the war and not seeking more international help in rebuilding Iraq in the face of skyrocketing US budget deficits. Senator Mark Dayton, a Minnesota Democrat, called for "a clear, direct and reliable accounting" of the war's costs.