US troops hunt Saddam loyalists as soldier killed

US TROOPS scoured a remote region north of Baghdad yesterday in a bid to track down guerrillas loyal to Saddam Hussein as one US soldier was killed and two wounded.

Three other soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a combined bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack yesterday near the town of Shumayt, north of Tikrit.

In Baghdad, US soldiers said three Iraqis had been killed after an American convoy was attacked with a grenade. One bloodstained body lay at the scene with at least three bullet wounds. Weeping relatives knelt down to kiss the corpse.