Youths celebrate as vehicles burn

TWO US soldiers were killed and one was wounded in an ambush north of Baghdad while insurgents attacked a convoy setting off huge explosions in several vehicles.

In a third incident, three apparent Iraqi attackers were also reported killed.

There were no reports of casualties in yesterday morning’s attack against what appeared to be an ammunition truck and two other American vehicles in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad in the “Sunni Triangle.”

Dozens of Iraqi youths cheered and danced in celebration as contents of the flaming vehicles continued to explode. The crowds scattered when two F-16 jets passed overhead. Witnesses said American troops tried to approach the truck, but withdrew after they came under attack with rocket-propelled grenades.

American troops and Iraqi police kept journalists away from the scene, but from a distance it appeared that the vehicles, which included a Humvee, were ablaze.

There were conflicting reports whether the attack in the eastern end of the city was triggered by a roadside bomb or by rocket-propelled grenades. “Shells were flying everywhere, like fireworks,” said Khalil al-Qubaisi, aged 45, a shopkeeper.

In the northern attack, an American mounted patrol was ambushed by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire at 10.45pm Saturday outside the northern city of Kirkuk, 159 miles north of Baghdad, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division.

The patrol from Task Force Ironhorse, a force that includes the 4th Division, returned fire, but no additional enemy contact followed, Aberle said.

In other action in the north, American troops were attacked by grenades and small arms and returned fire, killing three Iraqis near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the 4th Infantry Division reported.

Other American forces detained five attackers north of Beiji, 120 miles north of Baghdad, after a brief firefight.

Resistance forces have mounted an average of 22 attacks a day on the US occupation forces in Iraq in recent weeks, mostly in the so-called “Sunni Triangle,” a Sunni Muslim-dominated area stretching from the west of Baghdad to the north.

The area was a strong base of support for Saddam’s Ba’ath Party regime toppled by the US-British invasion earlier this year.

Saturday’s deaths came barely a day after four American soldiers were killed in a roadside explosion in Baghdad and a clash with Shi’ite Muslim gunmen in the southern shrine city of Karbala, on the deadliest day for the occupation force in a month.