IRAQ: A bomb exploded in the middle of a busy Baghdad road yesterday, killing a US soldier and at least four Iraqis before a visit by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld.
US officials said Mr Rumsfeld, an architect of the war to oust Saddam Hussein but now under fire over the chaos that has ensued, would visit Iraq before returning to Washington from a trip that has included Brussels and Afghanistan.
Police and witnesses said 16 Iraqis were wounded in the Baghdad blast as a military convoy and a packed minibus passed in opposite directions.
The US military said the device had exploded between the first and second of the convoy's three vehicles, killing one soldier.
The minibus was badly damaged. The blast also blew out shop windows around the area, known as New Baghdad, and left a large crater in the road.
Iraqi police captain Mr Sami Hadi said the blast, near a marketplace and a few blocks away from a popular mosque holding Friday prayers, had been caused by a remote-controlled mine.
The attack took to 190 the toll of US service personnel killed in action in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1st. Scores of Iraqis have also died in daily attacks by anti-US insurgents or from US fire.
The latest attacks come a day after the US urged NATO to consider a more robust role in Iraq.
The attack left many Iraqis angry. A shop owner whose friend was killed in the explosion, said: "Where are the police? How can people plant mines like this? Neither the police, the \ Governing Council or the Americans are running this country. This country is lost," he said. - (Reuters)