An American soldier was killed Friday when a bomb detonated under a military convoy in which he was traveling in the city of Fallujah, the US Army said.
The 3rd Infantry Division soldier died of injuries in the midafternoon attack on the main city's bridge over the Euphrates River, military spokeswoman Sgt. Amy Abbott said, according to AP.
Earlier, a witness in Fallujah reported seeing four U.S. soldiers evacuated from the scene of the attack and said an American Humvee was badly damaged.
At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Chief Petty Officer Diane Perry said the dead soldier was the only one hurt in the incident.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. military used plastic explosives to topple a 30-foot statue of Saddam on horseback from a pedestal in the former president's hometown of Tikrit. Soldiers also defused a huge homemade bomb near Baghdad's airport. The military considered destroying the statue on Thursday, the 35th anniversary of the coup that brought Saddam's Baath party to power.
In Baghdad, U.S. Army engineers on patrol spotted what they described as a large bomb in a burlap sack on the median strip of a highway near the airport. The bomb, inside a white burlap sack, had a 100-foot blast radius, said Lt. Robertrel Sachi of Columbus, Ohio. Several hours later, a large explosion rocked a site in southwestern Baghdad where the military often destroys ammunition.
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