Two US soldiers were injured in a bomb blast Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The two soldiers were on a foot patrol when a bomb exploded near them at about 6:50 a.m. (local time) Tuesday, the military said. On Monday, a U.S. civilian contractor was killed in an attack near Baghdad, the military said Tuesday.
Near Baqouba, some 50 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, U.S. jets and Apache helicopter gunships Tuesday bombed abandoned buildings, walls and trees along a road where attacks have been common. Fighter-bombers dropped 500-pound bombs and tanks fired their missiles at suspected ambush sites, the military said.
In the largest bombardment of targets in central Iraq since President Bush declared the end of major combat in May, F-16 fighter aircraft dropped two bombs Tuesday on targets near the town of Samara, about 100 kilometers north of Baghdad, the military added.
Meanwhile, in what seems to be a blow to Iraq's US-led administration, officials on Monday announced the resignation of an Italian official, who accused the occupation authorities of incompetence.
"The provisional authority simply doesn't work," the Italian Corriere della Sera quoted Marco Calamai, a special counselor of the Coalition Provisional Authority, as saying. "It's neither fish nor fowl. Reconstruction projects that were promised and financed have had practically no results." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
