US soldier latest casualty of Iraqi resistance

3.00pm - By PATRICK COCKBURN

An American soldier was shot in the neck and killed on Sunday as he queued to buy a soft drink at Baghdad University. An Iraqi man came up to him and said "Hello mister", drew a pistol from his pocket and fired.

Attacks on US soldiers are escalating in number and are now taking place in Baghdad and other cities where previously there has been little resistance to the occupation. There are also signs that many Iraqis approve of the killing of US soldiers.

There were shouts of "Allahu Akbar - God is Great" - from a crowd as the badly injured soldier was driven away from the university campus. He later died at a nearby military hospital. US troops maintain tight security at the university searching people and vehicles before they enter.

Over the past week, attacks - while still sporadic - have shown greater sophistication. On Thursday, a US base north of Baghdad was hit by four mortar rounds wounding 18 soldiers, two seriously.

On Saturday, seven Iraqi policemen, who had just had a five-day training course from American instructors in the town of Ramadi west of Baghdad, were killed by a carefully timed bomb and 50 injured as they marched down the street.

During the same period, a soldier was shot dead by a sniper as he stood guard outside the National Museum in Baghdad and there have been repeated attacks with rocket propelled grenades.

Paul Bremer, the US chief administrator in Baghdad, has blamed the remnants of the old regime which are still loyal to Saddam Hussein. He said they were "desperate men" who had no place in the new Iraq.

At the same time, the Coalition Provisional Authority - as the occupation administration is known - is clearly worried by the pin-prick attacks and does not know how best to respond.

Heavy battle tanks and armoured vehicles guard US positions around Baghdad, but these are of little use against a pistol fired at point blank range at soldiers. US forces said they killed two men who fired a rocket-propelled grenade as they drove in a white ute towards a checkpoint in the capital yesterday.

In Abu Sada al-Sagra, 65km northeast of Baghdad, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into a US compound injuring one soldier. The US army responded with massive sweep operations deploying thousands of troops in the countryside. A seven-day operation called 'Sidewinder' has just ended north of Baghdad, with the US military announcing it had detained 282 people and confiscated hundreds of weapons.

But Iraqi farmers caught up in the sweeps say the US soldiers often do not realise that the 40 per cent of Iraqis who live in the country traditionally possess arms and often carry them because of fear of looters. The US army said 30 Iraqis were killed in the operation and 28 US soldiers wounded.

The unpopularity of the occupation stems primarily from the failure of the CPA to restore law and order, and to provide adequate supplies of water and electricity. The collapse of the government has had a serious economic effect because the state was the biggest employer.

The weakness of the US position is that it does not have any important allies in Iraq outside Kurdistan. The CPA is trying to change this by nominating a Council of Governance this month. The council will have some 30 members and will in turn appoint some 22 ministers.

- INDEPENDENT


CASUALTIES IN THE IRAQ WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

These figures are as announced by US, British and Iraqi authorities or independently confirmed by Reuters correspondents.

The figures in brackets refer to casualties after May 1 when US President George W. Bush declared hostilities over.

Non-combat is defined as accidents, US or British fire killing/wounding their own troops or other incidents unrelated to fighting.

US AND BRITISH TROOPS KILLED:

COMBAT/ATTACKS

United States 141 (27)

Britain 14 (6)

NON-COMBAT

United States 66 (42)

Britain 29 (4)

IRAQIS KILLED:

Military: 2,320 #

Civilians: 6,045 - 7,693 *

# US military estimates relating only to fighting in or near Baghdad. No other figures available.

* Website www.iraqbodycount.net run by academics and peace activists puts Iraq's civilian deaths at between 6,045 and 7,693 based on incidents reported by at least two media sources.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq