| A bomb exploded in the middle of a busy Baghdad road on Friday, killing one American soldier and at least four Iraqis as a military convoy and a packed minibus passed in opposite directions, police and witnesses said. The attack came ahead of a visit to Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the war that toppled president Saddam Hussein but now under fire over the chaos that has ensued. He is expected to arrive on Saturday. Police said 16 Iraqis were also wounded in the Baghdad blast, one of two bombings on U.S. convoys in the capital, as Muslims headed to mosques for Friday prayers. There were no casualties in the other attack. In the fatal attack, the U.S. military said in a statement that the device exploded between the first and second vehicles of the three-vehicle convoy, killing one soldier. The minibus was badly damaged in the blast, with all its windows blown out. Pools of blood stained the floor of the wreckage. The blast also blew out shop windows around the area and left a large crater in the street. |