Iraqis fire missile at US transport plane

Iraqi fighters tried to shoot down a US transport plane with a surface-to-air missile, gunned down the mayor of an Iraqi city and killed an American soldier in a convoy, in a marked escalation of violence.

The new American commander in Iraq acknowledged for the first time yesterday that coalition forces were facing a ”classical guerrilla-type war situation” against opponents ranging from members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to non-Iraqi fighters from terrorist groups.

General John Abizaid spoke on the eve of a banned holiday today that Saddam loyalists could use to demonstrate their power.

The US military said one surface-to-air missile was fired at a C-130 transport as it landed at Baghdad International Airport. It was only the second known missile attack on a plane using the airport since Baghdad fell to US forces on April 9, said Spc Giovani Lorente. He said he did not know where the plane came from or whether it was carrying passengers, cargo or both.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Nayil al-Jurayfi, who had actively co-operated with US forces as the new mayor of Hadithah, was killed when his car was ambushed by attackers firing automatic rifles as he drove away from his office in the city 150 miles north west of Baghdad, police Capt Khudhier Mohammed said. One of the mayor’s sons also was killed.

Mohammed said the mayor, who took office after Saddam’s fall, was killed because he was “seizing cars” from Saddam loyalists who used to work in the deposed Iraqi leader’s offices in Hadithah, a city in the restive “Sunni Triangle” that is home to many supporters of the ousted dictator.

The American soldier was killed and three others were injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison, a US military spokesman said. In a separate attack, an eight-year-old Iraqi child died when an assailant threw a grenade into a US military vehicle guarding a bank in west Baghdad.

The American driver of the vehicle was wounded along with four Iraqi bystanders, according to Army Major Kevin West.

“They’re killing more Iraqis than they are Americans,” West said, shaking his head.

Abizaid, the new head of the US Central Command, said in Washington the attacks on US forces in Iraq resembled a ”classical guerrilla-type war situation”. But, he added, ”They’re not driving us out of anywhere.”

US soldiers have come under increasingly ferocious attacks by suspected Saddam loyalists in recent weeks – reaching an average of 12 attacks a day. More than 30 US soldiers have been killed in hostile action since President George Bush declared an end to major hostilities on May 1.

The Pentagon said that as of Monday, 144 US personnel had been killed in combat since the start of the Iraq war. At least two US soldiers have been killed in Iraqi attacks since then, bringing the total just short of the 147 killed in combat during the 1991 Gulf War.

One American was killed on Tuesday in an accident, US Central Command said in a statement. A US Marine fell off the roof of a building he was guarding in the southern city of Hillah, the statement said.

In yesterday’s attack on the convoy, a rocket-propelled grenade blasted into a US soldier’s truck, hurling him out, as the 20 vehicles passed along a main road. Soldiers at first believed a bomb was detonated as the convoy passed.

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.