U.S. Soldier Dies in Ambush in Iraq

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was killed in an ambush in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, after it announced arrests in the possible abduction of two U.S. servicemen.
The soldier was killed while investigating a car theft Thursday in Najaf, 100 miles southwest of Baghdad, a statement from U.S. Central Command said. The soldier was attached to the 1st U.S. Marine Expeditionary Force.
The soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives, Centcom said. It said the soldier died before a medical evacuation team arrived.
Also Friday, Sgt. Patrick Compton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said three suspects were detained in the disappearance of two American soldiers. U.S. forces kept up ground and aerial searches in search of the two soldiers, Compton said.
The men were guarding the perimeter of a rocket demolition site near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, on Wednesday when they failed to answer a radio call, Compton said.
"We don't know if they were abducted or they were just killed," he said.
The report of the soldier's death near Najaf came amid yet more attacks Americans on Friday.
Just northwest of Baghdad Friday morning, a U.S. Army truck struck an explosive device on a dirt road. A U.S. soldier and an eyewitness said wounded Americans were evacuated by helicopter. It was not clear what the explosive was.
The U.S. soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Americans were driving to Baghdad to make telephone calls to their families when the explosion happened.
Ambushes and hostile fire elsewhere in Iraq on Thursday killed at least one U.S. soldier, two Iraqi civilians and wounded at least eight other Americans.
Until recently, almost all violence against U.S.-led occupying forces in Iraq had centered around the Sunni Muslim-dominated area north and west of Baghdad, where former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein enjoyed a degree of support. In the past few days, attacks have spread to the Shiite-dominated 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 clashes Tuesday.
The leaflets said the U.S.-led coalition 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 leaflet added that British forces — who have not been seen in the volatile town since Tuesday's clash — would return to Majar al-Kabir to repair the damage done during Saddam's rule, without saying when.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, assailants blew up a U.S. military vehicle with a roadside bomb, dropped grenades from an overpass, destroyed a civilian SUV traveling with U.S. troops, demolished an oil pipeline and fired an apparent rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. Army truck.
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 Baath party strongholds.
"There have been more attacks recently, but it's probably premature to say this is part of a pattern," Thurmond said. "We've kicked open the nests of some of these bad guys."
The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, however, aired statements Thursday from two previously unknown groups urging assaults on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
One, by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect, claimed responsibility for recent attacks and promised more. The other, by the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Iraq, called for "revenge" against America.
Al-Jazeera said it could not verify the statements.
Two U.S. officials familiar with intelligence information said they had not previously heard of the groups issuing the statements and had no way of knowing if they were credible.