Two American soldiers wounded, occupation detains five Iraqis

Two American soldiers were injured yesterday in a hand- made explosive in Takrit ( 180 Km to the north of Baghdad), according to an American military source.

The spokesman explained that the two soldiers are from the fourth contingent, positioned in Tikrit, were slightly wounded yesterday morning as a result of a mortar explosion while they were in a patrol inside the streets of the city.

This type of explosive is considered one of the favorite weapons for the resistance men of the American in Iraq, who in particular are active in Tilkrit area, from where the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein comes.

At the same level, the American occupation forces detained five Iraqis in al-Khales to the north of Baghdad as one American procession was attacked by bombs in the area.

News reports quoted witnesses as saying that three Iraqis were wounded in the attack and one sedan car was damaged as it was parked near the site of the explosion.

The reports quoted one American military spokesman as saying that an American military position in al-Falouja, to the west of Baghdad, was exposed to an attack by shelling on Thursday evening. No human casualties were reported.

In another attack two American military vehicles were attacked by mortars in al-Ramadi and this resulted in damages.

In al-Kout to the south of Baghdad, news reports said that unidentified gunmen threw on Thursday one explosive at the headquarters of the civil defense in the city and opened their machine gun fire at the headquarters. The attack resulted in no human casualties. This attack came several days several days after the withdrawal of Ukraine forces from the headquarters.

In a separate incident, sources from the Ukraine forces said that two children were wounded on Thursday evening, one in a grave condition, following the blowing up of a land mine from the remains of the recent war near Abu Obeida air base to the south of Baghdad.

In al-Basra, the British forces yesterday launched a campaign of inspection for Abu Fils port in Abu al-Khasib area and prevented fuel tankers from entering the area.

On the other hand, Japanese forces which are in al-Samawa city to the south of Iraq reinforced its forces within the framework of a plan the Japanese government confirmed as humanitarian aiming at deploying 1,000 soldiers in the largest Japanese military deployment operation in war region since the end of the second world war.