WAR ON TERRORISM Attacks kill soldier, Marine

Muslim clerics decried the mutilation of four Americans, not their murders.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A roadside bomb killed an American soldier and wounded another today in Baghdad, the military said. A U.S. Marine was also killed a day earlier, it said.
The soldier who was killed today belonged to the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, the military said in a statement. The attack occurred around 6 a.m. in the Mansour neighborhood.
The injured soldier was in stable condition at a field hospital, the military said.
Separately, a U.S. Marine was killed "as a result of enemy action" in Anbar province Thursday, according to a statement from Camp Fallujah, the Marine base in the area.
The names of the slain troops were withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Also today, a suicide attacker detonated explosives at the entrance to a town hall in northern Iraq, killing himself and two other people, police said. Some American soldiers were inside but were unhurt.
The bomb exploded at 11 a.m. today in Riyadh, 16 miles west of Kirkuk, said police Col. Sarhat Qadir.
He said some U.S. soldiers were at the town hall at the time of the explosion but were not injured.
A cleric today condemned the mutilation of four slain American contractors in the defiant Muslim city of Fallujah but did not criticize the killings.
About the murders
U.S. officials, meanwhile, promised to hunt down those responsible but said clashes could be avoided if city officials act promptly against the insurgents. No U.S. forces were seen in the city, 35 miles west of Baghdad.
Sheik Fawzi Nameq spoke during weekly prayers at the Hmood al-Mahmood Mosque, a few blocks from the scene of the deadly ambush that killed the four contractors, whose charred remains were dragged through the streets.
"Islam does not condone the mutilation of the bodies of the dead," he told some 600 worshippers. "Why do you want to bring destruction to our city? Why do you want to bring humiliation to the faithful? My brothers, wisdom is required here."
Clerics in Fallujah strongly oppose the U.S.-led occupation and often use sermons to criticize American authority.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt pledged to hunt down those who carried out the killings but said clashes could be avoided if Fallujah city officials arrest those responsible for the murders.
A Fallujah city council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the council met late Thursday and issued a statement "condemning the mutilation of the bodies in the streets because it contradicts the teachings of Islam and it is unacceptable in the religious point of view."
He did not say whether a decision was made to take action against those responsible for the killings.