Three American soldiers killed in Iraq

Three American soldiers were killed and other 8 were at least wounded in new attacks launched by the Iraqi resistance during the 24 past hours.

In a statement, the US occupation army said that one soldier from the armored first contingent was killed and other three wounded yesterday at noon when a landmine was blown under their car on the highway near Baghdad's airport.

Eye witnesses said that another US soldier was killed in a new operation for the Iraqi resistance in Haifa street area in the downtown of Baghdad.

Earlier in the day, the Central US military leadership announced the killing of one American soldier and wounding other two in an attack by light weapons in Baqouba to the north east of Baghdad.

The American military spokeswoman Nicole Thomson said that the incident took place when the US soldiers were exposed to an ambush carried out by the Iraqi resistance on Wednesday evening. She stressed that the soldiers returned fire and this resulted in wounding 4 Iraqis, noting that three of the attackers were among the wounded.

In another incident, witnesses said that the main headquarters for the American occupation forces in Baladrose to the south-east of Baqouba was exposed yesterday at dawn to missiles and this resulted in killing and wounding several American soldiers.

In al-Musil, an armored American car was exposed to an attack by a mortar by unidentified gunmen. Witnesses said that the car was parked in front of a police center of al-Thaqafa ( culture) quarters near al-Musil university in Ninaoa province to the north of Iraq. The witnesses said the attack took place on Wednesday evening and resulted in destroying the car which was immediately evacuated by the American soldiers.

On the other hand, the American occupation forces continued breaking in and inspection operations in al-Bu'jeil area near Tikrit and arrested scores of the citizens of the area for several hours and then released them.