A blast near a holy Shiite Islamic shrine in the city of Karbala on Monday killed three people and wounded 12, witnesses said. All the dead apparently were passers-by.
In Tikrit, an American soldier was killed and another wounded in an explosion of an makeshift bomb, the U.S. Central Command said Monday.
Meanwhile, in a speech in Alabama President George W. Bush vowed the United States would "never run" from Iraq as he indirectly paid tribute to 16 soldiers killed when their helicopter was shot down.
"Some of the best have fallen in service to our fellow Americans. We mourn every loss, we honor every name, we grieve with every family and we will always be grateful that liberty has found such brave defenders," Bush said.
"The enemy in Iraq believes America will run. That's why they're willing to kill innocent civilians, relief workers, coalition troops. America will never run," he vowed.
In Baghdad, five strong blasts were heard in quick succession at about 9:10 p.m., and it appeared they were coming from the western side of the Tigris River. Soon after, the U.S military command reported three or four mortar impacts in central Baghdad.
Earlier, at least four Iraqi civilians, including an 11-year-old boy were killed in new attacks, it was reported.
A mortar attack in the northern city of Kirkuk late on Sunday killed two civilians and injured six, according to locals. They added three shells landed in a residential area where youths were gathering, according to Reuters.
Also on Sunday night, eyewitnesses said an 11-year-old Iraqi boy was killed near Fallujah after getting caught in a firefight between American forces and Iraqi resistance fighters.
On Monday morning, in Baquba, a town located northeast of Baghdad, one Iraqi man was killed and seven people were injured when a roadside bomb hit their bus just after a convoy carrying members of Iraq's civilian defence force drove by, residents said.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted Sunday the Bush administration's plan to improve security in Iraq was on track, with no need for additional U.S. troops.
"In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days, as this is," Rumsfeld said on ABC's "This Week." "But they are necessary. They are part of a war that's difficult and complicated." He made these comments in a day that saw the downing of an Army helicopter that left 16 dead, the killing of a U.S. soldier in a bomb attack in Baghdad and the deaths of two American civilian contractors in a roadside mine blast.
Rumsfeld said "over 100,000" Iraqi forces already had been trained to provide security and that number would double by next September.
Rumsfeld noted that although the number of U.S. troops in Iraq has declined from 150,000 to 130,000, "the total number of the security forces in the country has been going up steadily" because forces contributing from other countries has remained steady at 30,000 and the number of Iraqi forces "have gone from zero on May 1 up to over 100,000 today." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
