Iraqi killed, six hurt in Baghdad clashes

One Iraqi was killed and six others were injured when US soldiers opened fire after being attacked in two separate incidents today.

Two US convoys were attacked less than a mile apart in Baghdad and US soldiers in one of the attacks opened fire, killing one Iraqi driving nearby and wounding six others, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The violence in the capital came as Iraqi security officials were investigating who was behind yesterday’s sophisticated guerrilla attack – a bold daylight assault by dozens of fighters on a police station in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in which 25 people were killed, most of them policemen.

One US Military Police soldier was among those wounded in Saturday’s assault, said Col. William Darley, a military spokesman.

There were conflicting reports as to who may have been behind the attacks.

Police said foreign fighters, either Arabs or Iranians, were involved and that two of four attackers killed in the battle had Lebanese identification papers. Rumours spread in the city that an Iraqi Shiite Muslim militia with links to Iran, the Badr Brigade, were to blame.

But a US military officer in Baghdad said the attack pointed to former members of Saddam Hussein’s military.

“This was something put together by people with knowledge of small unit tactics,” he said. “It was a complex, well co-ordinated attack. This would not be the same tactics that al-Qaida would employ. These are military tactics.”

In today‘s attacks, a roadside bomb went off as a US military patrol passed by in western Baghdad, causing no injuries. The American soldiers opened fire in response, shooting three vehicles, witnesses said. One Iraqi was killed and six wounded, hospital officials said.

About half-a-mile away, gunmen attacked a US convoy on a highway at about the same time, setting one of the vehicles ablaze. Witnesses said US soldiers pulled three wounded foreigners from the stricken vehicle. The witnesses could not tell if the casualties were dead or alive.

The military also said today that an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper died when his vehicle overturned near Baghdad yesterday. The soldier’s name has not been released.

Insurgents have launched a series of bloody attacks in the past week, thought to be part of an escalation aimed at wrecking US plans to hand over power to the Iraqis on June 30.

The handover has run into a political storm as well, with the US under heavy pressure to change its method for picking a government to take power on the target date. US administrators want local councils to pick a legislature, which in turn would name a government that would rule until elections in 2005.

A prominent Kurdish leader said yesterday that he expects the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council to take power on June 30 if elections for a legislature cannot be arranged.

“We think that elections are the best way to express the opinions of the Iraqi people,” council member Jalal Talabani said. “We expect the Governing Council to receive sovereignty if no provisional government is established or no elections are held.”

When it transfers sovereignty, the US wants to give Iraqi security forces greater responsibility in battling the rebels. But Saturday’s attack in Fallujah raised questions about how prepared the Iraqis are to face the guerrillas, who have kept up their attacks despite the December 13 arrest of Saddam Hussein.