Two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded in separate attacks Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul, the US military said. Meanwhile, American troops in another northern city arrested five Iraqi policemen and 24 others suspected of ties to resistance fighters.
In the Mosul attacks, resistance fighters fired on soldiers guarding a gasoline station, killing one and injuring another, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.
A few hours later, Iraqi fighters detonated a roadside bomb and opened fire on a U.S. military convoy, killing one soldier and injuring three others, the spokesman adde.
In the gasoline station attack, U.S. soldiers returned fire and killed one assailant, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division said, according to The AP.
But witnesses said the attackers escaped and U.S. troops opened fire on passing cars, killing a driver in the line of fire. Witnesses identified the man as a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, a pro-American political party. The PUK's Mosul headquarters located across the street from the gas station.
Early Wednesday, U.S. troops and Iraqi police in Kirkuk arrested 29 people, including five policemen, who were suspected of ties to the former regime of Saddam Hussein, said Adnan Mohammed Saleh, a city police officer. Saleh said the policemen were suspected of passing intelligence to anti-occupation fighters.
Meanwhile, a US Apache helicopter caught fire before it made an emergency landing in northern Iraq on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A spokeswoman in Baghdad confirmed that there was an emergency landing. "The warning indicator light in the Apache helicopter came onand the pilot was forced to make a controlled landing," she said. The incident took place at 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) Wednesday in northern Iraq.(Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
