Two American soldiers in an explosion; two Iraqis killed

News reports quoted Iraqi medical sources as saying that two Iraqis were killed in a bomb explosion implanted on a highway in al-Amel quarters to the west of Baghdad.

A sedan car was burnt because of the explosion while the two killed men were inside it, and units of the Iraqi police and one American tank were deployed at the site of the incident.

One American plane bombarded an inspection point for the Mujahideen Shoura council in Falluja at the northern entrance of the city and this resulted in killing two persons and wounding other three.

This attack was preceded by an explosion that resulted in killing one Iraqi and wounding other three American soldiers. The explosion took place near the highway which leads to the airport, as one American military vehicle was passing by. It was not known whether the explosion was by a booby trapped car or an explosive.

These incidents took place after the killing of 23 Iraqis in a booby trapped car outside the headquarters of the Iraqi national guards in Karkouk to the north of Iraq, and the attack also resulted in injuring 52 persons, three of them in a critical health condition.

In another development in Karkouk, the commander of Karkouk police Tourhan Youssef announced that gunmen on Saturday assassinated the Shiite tribal leader in Karkouk, Sheikh Kazem al-Hani, with one of his relatives to the north of the city.

To the north of Karkouk, the police in Musil announced that five guards working for one Iraqi oil official were killed and other three injured in an ambush implanted by unknown gunmen in the city on Saturday, to the north of Iraq.

During these operations, two American soldiers were killed and other 8 injured in a booby trapped car in Baghdad. The soldiers were heading to a place where another car explosion took place when they were attacked. The American army said that the explosion also resulted in destroying three American military vehicles.