Four American soldiers killed in Karbala, Baghdad

An American military spokesman announced that three American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen were killed yesterday at dawn in an attack targeting them yesterday at dawn in Karbala to the south of Baghdad.

The spokesman added that four American soldiers and five Iraqi policemen were wounded in the attack against their patrol by Iraqis who were stationed at house roofs near al-Abbbas shrine, in which mortars and machine guns were used.

The spokesman did not indicate whether any of the attackers was killed.

One US soldier and other two were wounded in a bomb explosion in Baghdad. The two attacks coincided with the beginning of the American occupation forces to lessen their security measures in al-Sader city one day after taking control of the municipal council in the city, but kept soldiers around the building.

Meantime, a car went off near the headquarters of the occupation forces in Karkouk to the north of Baghdad. The director of traffic police in the city Sabah Bahloul said he survived an assassination attempt targeting him before midnight.

A mother of a Kurd was killed in Karkouk, suspected to be collaborating with the Americans; when a bomb went off placed in her garden in al-Qadeseyah quarters, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi police in the city.

In another attack a anti-tank RPG shell hit the headquarters of the Iraqi national reconciliation movement in Karkouk. The assistant for the Iraqi minister of the interior Muhammad Khourshid was inside the building when the attack took place but it seemed he was not the target. The missile resulted in damaging a car stationed near the gate of the headquarters. No casualties were reported.

In Irbil, a source at the ministry of the interior said that a man driving a booby trapped car tried to break into the building of the ministry in the downtown of the city. The source added that guards of the building opened fire at a car driver -- which was carrying large amounts of explosives -- and killed him.