An area near Saddam Hussein's hometown has been the scene of another deadly attack on U.S. troops. The military says an American soldier was killed and four others wounded when gunmen opened fire on them today near Tikrit. Central Command says the attackers used small arms and rocket-propelled grenade. In a separate incident, unidentified assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at a U.S. patrol near an air base west of Baghdad on Friday. Soldiers returned fire, but there were no reports of casualties on either side. The attackers fired on an M1A1 Abrams tank and a military police Humvee. The tank wasn't damaged, but the Humvee had numerous bullet holes in it. The firefight in the town of Khaldiya, 45 miles west of Baghdad, is the latest in a series of hit-and-run attacks by gunmen on U.S. forces in central Iraq. Several dozen soldiers have been killed or injured. On Thursday, gunmen shot dead an American soldier and wounded five in the nearby city of Fallujah, where there has been strong resistance to the U.S. occupation. Meanwhile, U.S. military sources said that two soldiers guarding a bank in downtown Baghdad were wounded Thursday when two men with pistols opened fire at them. The sentries returned fire and killed one of the attackers, while the other managed to flee.
| This sort of thing is going to go on for quite awhile. If there isn't outside support, it'll dwindle away slowly. If there is, it'll be time to beat somebody else up. |
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