U.S. forces search for 2; Army truck hits explosive

The Americans were driving to Baghdad to call their families when struck.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces searched for two missing servicemen today and a bomb struck an Army truck in the latest in a series of attacks that have raised concern that the United States could be confronting a guerrilla war in Iraq.
The U.S. military said it detained three Iraqis in connection with the disappearance of the servicemen north of Baghdad.
Three U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq since Thursday, two of them in ambushes against U.S.-led occupation forces.
Just northwest of Baghdad this morning, a U.S. Army truck struck an explosive device on a dirt road. A U.S. soldier and a witness said wounded Americans were evacuated by helicopter.
The U.S. soldier said on condition of anonymity that the Americans were driving to Baghdad to make telephone calls to their families when the explosion occurred.
Missing soldiers
Meanwhile, authorities interrogated three suspects detained in connection with the disappearance of two American soldiers, said Sgt. Patrick Compton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
U.S. forces kept up ground and aerial searches that have so far failed to find the soldiers or their Humvee, Compton said.
The pair were guarding the perimeter of a rocket demolition site near the town of Balad, 25 miles north of Baghdad, when they failed to answer a radio call and were reported missing Wednesday night, Compton said.
"We don't know if they were abducted or they were just killed," Compton said.
Tensions in the Iraqi capital have been exacerbated by electricity outages that have worsened over the past week.
The lack of electricity, which prevents the pumping of drinking water, fuels frustrations and anti-U.S. sentiment.
Andrew Bearpark, director of operations for the occupying administration, told reporters today that the outages were due to a "mixture of technical problems and criminal sabotage."
Vowed to go on
He added that part of the problem is that people are buying more appliances and using more electricity -- and vowed that reconstruction will go on.
"We will succeed, we will rebuild," he said.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, assailants blew up a U.S. military vehicle with a roadside bomb, demolished an oil pipeline and fired an rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. Army truck, wounding two soldiers.
Assailants Thursday also threw grenades at a U.S. and Iraqi civilian convoy in west Baghdad, killing two Iraqi employees of the national electricity authority. The convoy had U.S. Humvees at the front and back and two Iraqi civilian vehicles in the middle.
Hostile fire killed one U.S. special operations soldier and wounded eight others on Thursday, the military said, without providing details.
Also Thursday, gunmen killed an American soldier who was investigating a car theft in Najaf, 100 miles southwest of Baghdad, said a statement from U.S. Central Command.
The soldier died before medics arrived on the scene, the military said.
A U.S. Navy sailor attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died in a non-combat episode Thursday, military spokeswoman Army Sgt. Amy Abbott said, declining to provide details.
The names of the dead service members were withheld pending notification of relatives.
Until recently, most violence against U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq occurred in the Sunni Muslim-dominated belt north and west of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein enjoyed a degree of support. In the past few days, attacks have spread to the Shiite majority south.
Late Thursday, a British plane dropped leaflets on the southern town of Majar al-Kabir, where six British soldiers and at least five Iraqi civilians were killed in violent clashes on Tuesday.
The leaflets stated that the coalition forces regret the loss of life among Iraqi civilians and added that coalition forces were not behind the incident.
"We will not return to punish anyone since these are the methods of Saddam's regime. We will return to set up good relations with you because of our concern about a secure Iraq," the three-paragraph statement read. "Don't let rumors ruin our good relations."
The leaflets added that British forces -- who have not been seen in the volatile town since Tuesday's melee -- would return to Majar al-Kabir, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, to repair the damage done during Saddam's rule. It didn't specify when the British plan to return.
Officials played down the violence, but the surge in attacks is causing concern that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq could be turning into a guerrilla war.
A military spokesman, Maj. William Thurmond, said the spate of ambushes could be a response to recent U.S. raids on strongholds of the former ruling Baath Party.
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