A US soldier was shot in the head and critically wounded in Baghdad on July 6. Two Iraqis were killed in a separate incident while trying to attack US troops with an RPG on July 5.
By JAMIE TARABAY, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was shot in the head as he waited in line to buy a soft drink at Baghdad University on Sunday, while U.S. forces killed two insurgents who charged an army post in a truck, firing a rocket-propelled grenade.
The soldier was shot at close range at about midday, witnesses said. He was evacuated to a military hospital, where he was in critical condition, said Army Maj. William Thurmond, a U.S. military spokesman.
The violence in the capital came as the military declared the end of its latest major sweep through central Iraq hunting for Iraqis who have carried out daily attacks on American forces.
In the seven-day Operation Sidewinder, U.S. forces detained 282 people and confiscated hundreds of weapons and ammunition, the military said — but none of the Iraq's top fugitives were apprehended. Thirty Iraqis were killed in Sidewinder operations, and there were no coalition deaths, the military said.
Officials have blamed loyalists to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for the often deadly ambushes and shootings over the past weeks.
In Baghdad, the two insurgents were killed Saturday night as they charged U.S. troops in a white pickup truck and fired a rocket-propelled grenade. The burned out shell of the white pickup truck sat on the side of a traffic junction in Baghdad Sunday, cordoned off with white tape.
In other attacks, insurgents fired a grenade early Sunday into a small U.S. army compound in the town of Abu Sada al-Sagra, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, lightly injuring one soldier.
The wounded soldier, Pfc. Seth Janisse, from Indian River, Mich., suffered minor shrapnel wounds.
"We saw the muzzle flash where the RPG had come from and we returned fire, but I don't know if we got him," Janisse told The Associated Press.
U.S. forces were not the only targets of violence.
On Saturday afternoon, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the International Organization for Migration office in Mosul, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, hitting the compound wall and damaging several cars, said a spokesman for the United Nation's special representative in Iraq, Hamid Abdel-Jabar.
Also Saturday, a gunman shot and killed a young British journalist outside Iraq's Natural History Museum.
Richard Wild, a 24-year-old freelance videographer, was standing in a crowd in the midday sun when he was killed by a single, small-caliber bullet fired into his head at close range, said Michael Burke, an independent British TV producer in Baghdad.
Wild arrived in the country two weeks ago aiming to be a war correspondent, his co-workers said Sunday.
Burke identified Wild's body at a hospital morgue. The assailant fled into the crowd and was not apprehended, he said.
Wild's death brings to 16 the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the war on March 20.
On Sunday, Iraqis buried seven people killed in a bomb blast a day earlier that targeted a graduation parade by U.S.-trained police cadets. L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq, labeled the attack the work of "desperate men."
U.S. forces on Sunday also announced that they had delivered medical supplies and toys to hospital children's wards in Baghdad, while a new police station opened in Mosul with 36 graduates ready to police their neighborhoods, the U.S. military said.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was shot in the head as he waited in line to buy a soft drink at Baghdad University on Sunday, while U.S. forces killed two insurgents who charged an army post in a truck, firing a rocket-propelled grenade.
The soldier was shot at close range at about midday, witnesses said. He was evacuated to a military hospital, where he was in critical condition, said Army Maj. William Thurmond, a U.S. military spokesman.
The violence in the capital came as the military declared the end of its latest major sweep through central Iraq hunting for Iraqis who have carried out daily attacks on American forces.
In the seven-day Operation Sidewinder, U.S. forces detained 282 people and confiscated hundreds of weapons and ammunition, the military said — but none of the Iraq's top fugitives were apprehended. Thirty Iraqis were killed in Sidewinder operations, and there were no coalition deaths, the military said.
Officials have blamed loyalists to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for the often deadly ambushes and shootings over the past weeks.
In Baghdad, the two insurgents were killed Saturday night as they charged U.S. troops in a white pickup truck and fired a rocket-propelled grenade. The burned out shell of the white pickup truck sat on the side of a traffic junction in Baghdad Sunday, cordoned off with white tape.
In other attacks, insurgents fired a grenade early Sunday into a small U.S. army compound in the town of Abu Sada al-Sagra, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, lightly injuring one soldier.
The wounded soldier, Pfc. Seth Janisse, from Indian River, Mich., suffered minor shrapnel wounds.
"We saw the muzzle flash where the RPG had come from and we returned fire, but I don't know if we got him," Janisse told The Associated Press.
U.S. forces were not the only targets of violence.
On Saturday afternoon, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the International Organization for Migration office in Mosul, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, hitting the compound wall and damaging several cars, said a spokesman for the United Nation's special representative in Iraq, Hamid Abdel-Jabar.
Also Saturday, a gunman shot and killed a young British journalist outside Iraq's Natural History Museum.
Richard Wild, a 24-year-old freelance videographer, was standing in a crowd in the midday sun when he was killed by a single, small-caliber bullet fired into his head at close range, said Michael Burke, an independent British TV producer in Baghdad.
Wild arrived in the country two weeks ago aiming to be a war correspondent, his co-workers said Sunday.
Burke identified Wild's body at a hospital morgue. The assailant fled into the crowd and was not apprehended, he said.
Wild's death brings to 16 the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the war on March 20.
On Sunday, Iraqis buried seven people killed in a bomb blast a day earlier that targeted a graduation parade by U.S.-trained police cadets. L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq, labeled the attack the work of "desperate men."
U.S. forces on Sunday also announced that they had delivered medical supplies and toys to hospital children's wards in Baghdad, while a new police station opened in Mosul with 36 graduates ready to police their neighborhoods, the U.S. military said.
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