Four Iraqis, U.S. soldier killed in separate blasts; American convoy attacked in Baghdad

A U.S. military spokesman, cited by Reuters, said the car exploded in a northern section of the city, located 112 miles north of the capital. He added the 17 civilian casualties were taken to hospital and the U.S. soldiers were evacuated.

Separately, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a U.S. tank in the town, wounding one U.S. soldier, a spokesman from the U.S.1 st Infantry Division said.

A hospital official in Baiji said a child and three traffic police were among the wounded.

Elsewhere, a U.S. Army soldier died from injuries sustained after a roadside bomb exploded next to his patrol north of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday.

The death brings to 135 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month, according to an unofficial count. The attack on the1 st Infantry Division patrol took place near the town of Alazu at around10 p.m., the statement said. The injured soldier was evacuated to a field hospital for treatment, where he later died of his wounds.

In another incident, a suicide bomber activated a car packed with explosives near a U.S. convoy on Baghdad's airport road on Tuesday, and several casualties were seen lying next to a damaged vehicle, witnesses and authorities said. (Albawaba.com)

http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=289827&lang=e&dir=news

A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint in western Iraq yesterday, killing at least seven people and injuring nine.

The seven dead men were Iraqi police or national guardsmen standing by the checkpoint in the town of Baghdadi, 100 miles northwest of the capital.

One report suggested they were waiting to collect their salary when the bomber struck. Police and national guardsmen have been frequent targets of insurgents across Iraq in the past year.

In a separate incident, in north-west Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a US army convoy, killing two American soldiers and injuring three others.

Last night the Foreign Office tightened its travel warnings for Iraq and said that from Sunday staff at the British embassy in Baghdad were banned from travelling on the main road to the city's international airport because there had been so many attacks.

The embassy was also advising staff against flying on commercial airliners to or from Iraq after a bomb was defused on a flight last week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1362376,00.html

As of Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004, at least 1,253 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 981 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.

The AP count is one lower than the Defense Department's tally. It's not unusual for the figures to differ slightly from day to day.

The British military has reported 74 deaths; Italy, 19; Poland, 13; Spain, 11; Ukraine, nine; Bulgaria, seven; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Thailand and the Netherlands, two each; and Denmark, El Salvador, Hungary and Latvia have reported one death each.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,115 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 874 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

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The latest deaths reported by the military:

- One U.S. soldier died Monday from wounds sustained when his patrol was attacked with a bomb near Alazu, Iraq.

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The latest identifications reported by the military:

- Marine Lance Cpl. Adam R. Brooks, 20, Manchester, N.H.; killed Sunday in Iraq's Babil province; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.

- Marine Lance Cpl. Charles A. Hanson Jr., 22, Panacea, Fla.; killed Sunday in Iraq's Babil province; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.

- Army Pfc. Stephen C. Benish, 20, Clark, N.J.; died Sunday in Ramadi, Iraq, when he was attacked while on patrol; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Howze, Korea.

- Marine Cpl. Gentian Marku, 22, Warren, Mich.; killed Thursday in Iraq's Anbar province; assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4645655,00.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A resurgence in armed actions broke out Tuesday in areas west of Fallujah along a key highway leading to Jordan, just weeks after a massive U.S.-led military offensive in the city.

American troops in Iraq ended November with 135 deaths, the biggest toll since April, when fighting flared across north and west Iraq in the "Sunni triangle," a region dominated by supporters of toppled Sunni Muslim dictator Saddam Hussein.

Heavily armed anti-American insurgents on Tuesday took over and briefly held nine police stations and highway checkpoints, blowing up two buildings, police said. Drivers reported that insurgents also took control of large sections of the highway leading west out of Iraq, stopping traffic and shaking down passengers.

"The government will send elements from the National Guard to control the highway since the insurgents are now controlling a large part of it," police Lt. Hameed al Delemi said.

The takeover of police installations came on a day of bombings against U.S. military convoys elsewhere. The worst was in Beiji, an oil-refining town in the north, as a U.S. military convoy went through a bustling area of shops. A car bomb killed seven civilians and wounded at least 15 people. Two of the wounded were American soldiers.

In a simultaneous attack elsewhere in Beiji, 110 miles north of Baghdad, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. tank, wounding a soldier. Five American soldiers were wounded when a suicide bomber blew up his car along the perilous road from Baghdad to its international airport, destroying an armored military truck. The blast left a large crater in the road.

U.S. forces said an American soldier died late Monday after an explosion hit his patrol north of Baghdad.

The armed actions west of Fallujah came just weeks after some 10,000 American troops stormed the city in the bloodiest urban military campaign for U.S. forces since the Vietnam War. The offensive left 53 American soldiers dead. Many U.S. troops remain in and near the city.

Insurgents blew up two badly damaged buildings Tuesday in Khaledia, between Fallujah and Ramadi, a small city on the highway leading to Jordan, police said.

"One of them was a police station. It had been attacked so many times before that one side was collapsed and it had already been evacuated," police 1st Lt. Basam al Kubaisi said. "The other building was sometimes used by the U.S. Army."

Insurgents also took over six checkpoints west of Ramadi, al Delemi said.

Raykan Ali, 34, who drives passengers between Iraq and Jordan, said insurgents stopped his vehicle, searched it and took gold jewelry from his passengers.

"I didn't see any policemen on the road. There was some American (military presence), but it was scattered," he said.

Insurgents seized other police checkpoints and stations near the town of Baghdadi, al Rutba and Tanaf, policeman Jomaa A'atia said.

"The insurgents killed one of my colleagues because he didn't give them his car, and they took two cars from the al Rutba police station and confiscated more than 25 weapons," he said.

Another highway policeman, Mohammed Hamadi, said insurgent groups seemed to be marauding for weapons, and that one of their leaders was not Iraqi.

"I think he was Saudi, and I think all of these actions happened because of the attack on Fallujah," Hamadi said.

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(A special correspondent in Fallujah, Iraq, who remains anonymous for security reasons, contributed to this report.)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10305166.htm