Three US soldiers killed, intense resistance
Three American soldiers were killed and others wounded in two separate attacks in Sameraa and al-Musil, according to military sources of the US occupation forces in Iraq.
In a recent attack, two soldiers from the fourth American contingent were killed and other 4 were wounded when a military base in Sameraa to the north of Baghdad was exposed to mortar shelling.
The occupation army, however, issued a statement in which it announced the killing of one from airborne 101 contingent by gunmen as he was hit while guarding a cereals silo in al-Musil to the north of Iraq and two others were wounded.
In al-Musil, two Iraqi children were killed in addition to three persons alsin an attack against the police center yesterday.
In al-Falouja to the west of the Iraqi capital, witnesses said that two American soldiers were wounded after an explosive went off in one military vehicle. The witnesses said the occupation forces blocked the area immediately and detained 4 Iraqis following the explosion and defused another explosive found in the same area.
Al-Falouja, the most tense area and the main center for resistance, also witnessed clashes yesterday between hundreds of demonstrators and police members following Friday's prayers in protest of the existence of the American forces. The protestors threw stones and chanted slogans vowed to "bury the Americans."
Following the increased attacks against the occupation forces in Iraq, the US defense department ( the Pentagon) accused the Iraqi Ansar al- Islam group as being its first enemy in the country.
Head of the US Central leadership, Army Gen. John Abizaid said that members of the groups moved to Baghdad and increased that number of the attacks against the American forces. The American and Kurdish forces destroyed the main base of the group in northern Iraq in March.
The American accusations coincides with the visit paid by the US under defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the senior officials of the American planning to what is called the war against terrorism -- with the aim to transfer the fighting of resistance from the American forces to the Iraqis.
Wolfowitz who is visiting Iraq for the second time during three months expressed his concern over the escalated attacks against the American soldiers, noting that the Iraqis and the Americans "are sacrificing their souls to defend their country and building a free and prosperous future."