Iraqis die in bomb attack on US soldiers

A roadside bomb exploded near a military petrol tanker outside Baghdad today, wounding two US soldiers and, according to a witness, killing two Iraqi civilians.

Captain Tammy Galloway said a home-made device exploded near Abu Ghraib, 20 mile west of the Iraqi capital, as the tanker was passing and two soldiers were wounded.

Witness Jassim Mohammed, 19, said he saw the bodies of two Iraqis in a civilian car damaged in the blast.

The military also reported that rebels had killed an American soldier in the first fatal ambush on occupation forces since Saddam Hussein’s capture.

The soldier was killed on Wednesday night when a 1st Armored Division patrol came under fire in north-west Baghdad. A second soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded.

In Baghdad today, an Iraqi woman died as another blast hit the office of a major Shiite party in the Iraqi capital.

The predawn attack on the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution party came a day after Shiites buried a senior politician assassinated as he left his home in Baghdad.

Rahim Jabar said his sister was killed and five other residents were wounded in the explosion, which brought down half of a single storey house that was also a party branch office.

Party officials blamed both attacks Saddam loyalists.

Supreme Council members were rushing to the scene, and an anti-Saddam rally was planned in the capital today.

American soldiers raided a middle-class neighbourhood near Baghdad’s international airport overnight and arrested five suspected guerrillas.

They included a suspected bomb maker, said raid commander, Captain Joel Kostelac.