Iraqi resistance fighters attacked a US convoy with a rocket-propelled grenade in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday, killing a civilian, working working as a translator for the occupation forces and injuring two soldiers, Maj. Brian Luke, of the 4th Infantry Division said.
The civilian contract worker is the second to be killed
this month in Tikrit.
The attack took place shortly after noon. Luke said the victims were traveling in a three vehicle convoy in the Tikrit market district.
Elsewhere, FBI agents led the search for clues in the rubble of a bombed U.N. compound in Baghdad.
United Nations workers were told to stay at home Wednesday after a cement truck packed with explosives blew up outside the offices of the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, killing him and 19 other people.
In Britain, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said his nation and the United States were considering giving the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq following the attack.
Straw said he had spoken to Secretary of State Colin Powell about giving the U.N. a bigger role. "We are very open-minded about that," he added, according to the AP.
U.N. and U.S. officials called the bombing a "terrorist attack," but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
As FBI agents joined the investigation, Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who is rebuilding the Iraqi police force, told reporters that evidence suggested the attack was a suicide bombing.
But he said it was "much too early" to say if Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was behind the attack. "We don't have that kind of evidence yet."
In Tuesday's attack, a cement truck detonated at the concrete wall outside the three-story Canal Hotel. The blast occurred while a news conference was under way in the building, where 300 U.N. employees had worked.
L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, walked through the scene of destruction as workers dug through the rubble with their hands.
"We will leave no stone unturned to find the perpetrators of this attack," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
