Grenade attack kills U.S. soldier and injures two

An Iraqi was also killed today when a mortar shell exploded.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Attackers fired a rocket propelled grenade at a U.S. military ambulance, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring two others today, a military spokesman said.
It was the third reported attack on U.S. personnel or their offices in the past 24 hours.
The ambulance was transporting a wounded U.S. soldier to a medical facility when it was hit on a highway in southwest Baghdad.
The wounded soldier who was being transported was not the one killed, said Capt. John Morgan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. The casualties were members of an Army medical brigade, and their identities were not being released pending notification of relatives.
The wounded were taken to an Army support hospital in southwest Baghdad. It was not immediately clear if the ambulance was traveling as part of a convoy or if fire was returned.
The attack took place at noon today in southwest Baghdad's al-Dora section.
Iraqi killed
Also today, a mortar shell exploded outside a coalition-run humanitarian aid office in the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi bystander and wounding 12 others, according to the U.S. military.
Attackers also fired a rocket-propelled grenade that struck a U.S. tank in Samarra, said Sgt. Steven Stoddard with the Army's 4th Infantry Division. A second tank fired at the attackers, killing one and wounding another, Stoddard said.
No American troops were killed in those two attacks.
In west Baghdad today, an Army truck was hit by what witnesses said was a rocket-propelled grenade. The torn-apart truck sat burning on the edge of the highway.
Witnesses said there were casualties, but U.S. military police at the scene said the vehicle had earlier broken down and was set on fire after it was left alone while soldiers prepared to remove it.
The mortar round in Samarra, 75 miles north of Baghdad, exploded outside the Civil Military Operations Center on Wednesday. U.S. soldiers heard three explosions and asked local police to investigate, said a statement from U.S. Central Command.
The statement said Samarra police found the injured and killed and that soldiers were unable to find the attackers.
The office coordinates between the military and civilian agencies in the area.
Meanwhile, scores of angry mourners fired Kalashnikov assault rifles into the air and shouted curses at the United States during a procession today for two Iraqis who were shot dead by U.S. troops at a protest by disgruntled former army officers.
Shouting "Death to Bush!" and "Revenge," mourners marched with the body of 32-year-old former Iraqi army officer Tareq Hussein Mohammed, killed by U.S. troops, from his house in northern Baghdad to a mosque.
Mohammed was one of two men shot outside the gate of the coalition headquarters in Baghdad during a demonstration of ex-soldiers demanding their salaries. The U.S. military said the men were shot after the protest turned violent.
"Abu Soheib, come back to us," wailed his wife, Soheir, using his nickname. "Now there is no salary, and no man."
As neighbors saw the coffin arriving at his house from the morgue, they fired their weapons into the air for more than 15 minutes at a time in a deafening, frenzied display of defiance. U.S. troops have prohibited people from shooting their weapons in the streets.
In Iraq, shooting into the air is also a sign of respect for the dead.
"Iraqis are going to kill Americans. We are going to take revenge for Tareq's blood," said Salwa Mohammed, a relative of the slain man.
Black-clad women at the house sat on the floor and wailed.
Other concerns
As the U.S. military grappled with an increase in guerrilla attacks, the United Nations reported that an increase in power outages in the capital of Baghdad was caused by sabotage to Iraqi power lines. The United Nations also reported that humanitarian assistance vehicles were being fired upon, along with those of the American military.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army's Baghdad radio station began broadcasting appeals for Iraqis -- including ex-military personnel -- to join the civilian police force in Baghdad and Fallujah. Some say the upsurge in violence is at least partly due to the huge number of former soldiers and officers of the ousted regime who lost their jobs.
Iraqi cities have been on edge since Sunday, when coalition forces began house-to-house searches in Baghdad for banned weapons and suspected activists trying to undermine the U.S.-led occupation.
U.S. forces said Wednesday they captured Saddam Hussein's top aide and presidential secretary, a man who American officials believe knows the fate of the deposed Iraqi leader and has information about banned weapons.
Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti was No. 4 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi leaders, behind only Saddam and sons Qusai and Odai.
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