3 US troops die as violence rages in Iraq
AFP, Baghdad
Three US troops were killed in a span of hours as the Americans pressed their drive to root out the Iraqi resistance to their nearly six-month-old occupation, taking the toll from attacks to 88 in five months. One soldier was killed late Wednesday in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack in Samarra 100 km north of Baghdad, at the same time as another was struck down by small arms fire in the capital. The pair of attacks came just four hours after a bomb claimed the life of a soldier in Tikrit, the hometown of ousted strongman Saddam Hussein. "A 4th Infantry Division soldier died of wounds he received in an RPG attack on his convoy which was travelling by Samarra," at nine pm (1700 GMT), a military spokesperson said. The infantryman was evacuated from Samarra to a field hospital where he later died, the spokesperson added. It was the 88th death of a soldier in combat here since US President George W. Bush declared hostilities over on May 1. As the convoy was being ambushed in Samarra, unknown assailants shot dead a US soldier and wounded another in the capital. The two members of the 1st Armored Division, were shot with a small-calibre handgun also at nine pm while on patrol in the posh Al Mansur neighbourhood in Baghdad, the US military's Central Command said in a statement. The fatal attacks commenced at five pm with a bomb blast that left one soldier dead and two wounded in Tikrit, 175 km north of Baghdad. Major Josslyn Aberle, of the 4th Infantry Division, said the soldier was killed by an "improvised explosive device", which more and more is the weapon of choice for guerrillas in their war of attrition against the US-led coalition occupying Iraq. It was the greatest number of US deaths in combat in a day since three soldiers were killed on September 20.
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