A land mine exploded Saturday on a road in the northern city of Mosul, killing two Americans in passing vehicles and injuring three other people, Iraqi police said.
Earlier, three or four American soldiers were wounded in Mosul when assailants threw a grenade at them from a speeding car, Iraqi police said.
Early on Saturday, an oil pipeline also was reported on fire about 15 kilometers north of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Witnesses said they suspected sabotage because the blaze was preceded by an explosion during the night, The AP reported.
Meanwhile, rumors spread through Baghdad that bombings or other resistance operations would strike the capital Saturday. A street leaflet attributed to the ousted Baathist regime declared it would be the "Day of Resistance," and also called for a three-day general strike to start Saturday.
As a result, U.S. officials urged Americans in the Iraqi capital to "maintain a high level of vigilance."
The Australian government also warned that a Baghdad hotel popular with foreign journalists and aid workers could be targeted for an attack.
"The Australian government has received credible reports of imminent terrorist threats to the district of the al Hamra Hotel in central Baghdad," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned in its latest travel advisory late Friday. "These reports indicate a particular threat over the next two weeks beginning on November 1."
Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush said Saturday that an upsurge in violence will not cause the U.S. to leave Iraq prematurely, as he insisted that U.S.-led forces are rounding up insurgents despite new attacks.
"The United States will complete our work in Iraq," Bush
said in his weekly radio address.
"Leaving Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the danger to America. We are determined to stay, to fight and to win."
President Bush, spending time at his Texas ranch during the weekend, was responding to an increase in ambushes and bombings by resistance forces.
"Some of the killers behind these attacks are loyalists
of the Saddam (Hussein) regime who seek to regain power and who resent Iraq's new freedoms," he added.
"Others are foreigners who have traveled to Iraq to spread fear and chaos and prevent the emergence of a successful democracy in the heart of the Middle East." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
