| Elsewhere in Iraq, four Iraqis were killed and four wounded in the southern city of Nasiriyah when a fuel tanker exploded next to a communication building, said Police Lieutenant Radhi Mohammed. The cause of the explosion was under investigation, he said. The uncertainty in Iraq did nothing to help nervous world oil markets. The US-led coalition announced that Iraq's fledgling air force had begun patrolling key oil infrastructure with two Australian-built reconnaissance aircraft after training by Britain's Royal Air Force. In the capital's main Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, the US military said a three-day offensive against Sadr's militiamen was continuing in conjunction with Iraqi security personnel. The health ministry said 10 people had been killed and 79 wounded in the 24 hours to Friday morning. The US military said two marines had been killed and two wounded since the operation began Wednesday. North of Baghdad, in the Sunni insurgent bastion of Samarra, two US soldiers were killed when a makeshift bomb hit their patrol on Friday evening. In Fallujah, another Sunni stronghold west of the capital, two Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded, including three women and a child, in twin US air strikes, a doctor said. |