In separate roadside bomb attacks Monday, two US soldiers were killed - one in Baghdad and the other in a city northeast of the capital, the US military said.
One soldier from Task Force Iron Horse died and four others were injured when a bomb exploded at about 9:40 a.m. [local time] in the center of Baqouba, some 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the 4th Infantry Division said.
Two Iraqis were arrested, including one who had a cell phone that may have been used to "detonate the bomb", according to Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a division spokesman in Tikrit.
Meanwhile, the other bombing took place in central Baghdad also Monday at about 9:20 a.m. [local time], killing one soldier from the 1st Armored Division and wounding another, when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb, according to the military.
Also Monday, another bomb went off in a schoolyard in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding three others, a U.S. military official said.
Iraqi police responded to the explosion in the city's Kadhamiya section and found a second unexploded bomb.
In a separate development, Iraq's Shiite elite has drawn up "compromise proposals" to rescue the community from an ongoing political standoff with the Americans over its demand for snap elections.
The Marjaiya, the top clerical body for the country's Shiite majority, has set up a series of alternatives as it awaits the findings of a UN mission tapped to render a verdict on whether polls are possible before the US-led occupation ends on June 30.
The alternative proposals cannot be unveiled now "since we are awaiting an answer from the United Nations," AFP cited Sheikh Abdel Mahdi al-Karbalai as saying.
A source close to the Marjaiya warned that the options could include a possibly violent campaign against the US-led occupation, but such an uprising seemed doubtful given the Shiite policy, until now, of "cooperating" with the occupation.
"It's only a possible option to re-establish the balance" of power with the US-led occupation and military, the source explained.
For his part, the top civil administrator in Iraq, Paul L. Bremer, signaled his readiness to strike a deal. He told ABC television he would take the UN's advice "with great seriousness". (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
