Baghdad bomb kills U.S. soldier

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi insurgents killed an American soldier in a roadside bombing in Baghdad today, and Spain said it was withdrawing much of its diplomatic staff from Iraq for security reasons, the third coalition country to do so in recent weeks.
The Spanish Embassy will remain open but with minimal staffing and a significant number of its 29-member staff is being pulled out, a foreign ministry official said.
"We have taken staff out of Baghdad temporarily given that it is a very complicated moment," the Spanish news agency Europa Press quoted Foreign Minister Ana Palacio as saying. She did not say exactly how many diplomats were being withdrawn.
Death toll
In Baghdad, the roadside bombing killed one soldier and wounded two others, all from the 1st Armored Division, the U.S. command said. Another soldier was killed Monday and one other wounded when their vehicle struck a land mine in Tikrit.
The deaths brought the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq in November to 23, most in the weekend crash of a transport helicopter shot down Sunday west of Baghdad.
The roadside bombing in the capital followed a brief mortar barrage in which at least three projectiles detonated about 9:15 p.m. Monday in central Baghdad, causing no damage or casualties, U.S. officials said.
One hit a U.S. Army camp of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the officials said.
Ambush in Khaldiyah
Elsewhere, witnesses said insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol today with rocket-propelled grenades in the city of Khaldiyah, located west of Baghdad in the volatile "Sunni Triangle." There were no reports of casualties.
A police station in the northern city of Mosul was struck overnight by a rocket-propelled grenade, the military said today. There were no casualties.
Weapons raids
U.S. troops, meanwhile, raided the village of Karasia near Tikrit late Monday, seizing two suspects, Kalashnikov rifles, 14 mortar rounds, a mortar tube, and rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, the military said.
The dramatic increase in American hostile fire deaths this month was because of Sunday's downing of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, which was carrying dozens of American soldiers on leave. Sixteen Americans died and 20 were wounded.
It was the largest U.S. death toll in any single action since the invasion of Iraq began March 20.
"Everybody was just laid out everywhere, and they were trying to search for most of the people that were left within the rubble," survivor Cpl. David Tennant told CBS. "There was a lot of people screaming. I just remember waking up in the middle of the rubble, trying to escape, trying to get out of the burning metal."
Sixteen of the injured were flown by U.S. Air Force C-17 transport Monday to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and treated at the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Nine were admitted to the intensive care unit, including five in serious condition, said hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
Insurgency escalates
The recent bold attacks represent a major escalation in the campaign by a shadowy group of insurgents fighting to drive occupation forces out of Iraq. They also illustrated the vulnerability of American lines of communication to guerrilla ambushes and roadside bombings.
Until now, the U.S. military has believed that helicopters and transport planes provided a relatively safe mode of transport for ferrying troops and supplies around the country. That has been called into question by Sunday's attack on the Chinook.
Spain's withdrawal
The Spanish withdrawal comes after a Spanish navy captain was killed in the truck bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on August 19, and a Spanish sergeant working for that nation's military intelligence was assassinated in Baghdad on Oct. 9. Security at the Spanish embassy had been stepped up in recent weeks.
The Netherlands moved diplomats from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, last month, as did the Bulgarians.
Spain has about 1,300 soldiers based in Iraq and was one of the strongest supporters of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq despite massive public opposition at home.
More news
In other developments Monday:
* An explosion in Karbala, 65 miles south of Baghdad, killed at least one person and injured 12. The blast occurred about 100 yards from the gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine.
UThe head of an Iraqi court who was investigating members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, Muhan Jabr al-Shuweily, was abducted and murdered Monday in Najaf, a colleague said.
UA neighborhood council chairman in west Baghdad, Mustafa Zaidan al-Khaleefa, 47, was fatally shot from a passing car late Sunday. Numerous Iraqi local and national officials cooperating with the occupation have been targeted for assassination.