A U.S. soldier was killed and another injured when an explosive device blew up in the capital of Baghdad on Tuesday, a military spokeswoman said. "We had one soldier killed in Baghdad by an improvised explosive device (IED) and one wounded this morning at 10:10 (0710 GMT)," she said, according to Reuters.
Elsewhere, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a Christian judge was fatally shot early Tuesday outside his home, according to police officials.
Ismail Youssef was a deputy to the head of the appeal courts in Nineveh province. He was shot about 7:45 a.m (local time), his family and neighbors said.
"He has no enemies. He wasn't responsible for a criminal court or anything. We thought they might be after his car but he didn't even have it with him at the time," said Saad Hamid, a police officer who works at the same court with Youssef.
Youssef's wife said she had no idea why her husband was targeted.
"He has never been threatened," said Soreya Younis. "He's a respectable man who was appreciated by everyone."
Meanwhile, Moscow is not considering sending troops to help the U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq because the conditions are not right, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Tuesday.
"At the moment we're not even considering it. The conditions for Russian military participation are not right," Putin told Italy's Corriere della Sera.
"From the start we opposed military intervention (in Iraq). It would be incoherent and stupid today to say we were prepared to send troops."
Putin said it was urgent to move swiftly in Iraq to restore sovereignty to the people of Iraq.
"It is vital to bring together the efforts of the international community to create the conditions for control to be handed to the Iraqi people," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
