Ten Americans, former Iraqi army general wounded

The American occupation forces announced yesterday that the Iraqi resistance intensified their attacks during the last weeks and that their operations have become more complex and the last three of which were yesterday and resulted in wounding 10 Americans while the US forces detained more than 10 Iraqi resistance men including a former Iraqi army general in raids launched in Tikrit and Baqouba.

The occupation army said that two American soldiers were wounded yesterday when an explosive went off near an American convoy in an underground tunnel in the downtown of Baghdad, while eye- witnesses said that they saw four American soldiers transported into an ambulance after they were injured when a bomb exploded in the armored vehicle they were riding in al-Falouja.

A statement by the American occupation army said it launched a series of raids in Tikrit and Baqouba that resulted in arresting ten "target" in the first and a former Iraqi army general in the second.

Meantime, and in a press conference he had held, commander of the US forces in Iraq Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said that the Iraqi resistance forces intensified its attacks during the three past weeks especially in al-Anbar province to which al-Fakouja city belongs, whose area extends until the Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi borders.

He explained that "the number of wounded and clashes in the past three weeks were greater than we had witnessed before." He added that the average of the number of these attacks against the American forces ranges between 20 to 25 daily, but this number increased to 35 clashes per day during the 3 past weeks.

Meantime, in al-Najaf, an armed group launched several attacks at several headquarters of the Shiite leaders on Tuesday evening but reports gave no mention about casualties.

A spokesman for the Higher Council Of the Islamic Revolution said that four out of 6 attackers were arrested and they admitted they are supporters of the dissolved Baath party.