2 soldiers killed in attack, gunmen kill 4 women

BAGHDAD – A barrage of mortar fire struck a US military encampment in central Iraq, killing two American soldiers and critically wounding a third, the military said yesterday.

In separate incidents, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women who worked in the laundry at a US military base, killing four of them, and the security chief of Spanish troops was wounded during a raid south of the capital. Also yesterday, gunmen firing from a van killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded three others in an attack on a checkpoint between Fallujah and Ramadi, and the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Saddam Hussein’s Baath party was slain by an unidentified attacker in the southern city of Basra, police said.Major Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said insurgents fired mortars and rockets at a US military encampment outside the town of Baqouba, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday evening, killing the two soldiers and critically wounding another.The three soldiers were standing outside the tactical operations centre when the barrage hit, she said.The attack also damaged vehicles.US forces launched a counterattack but there was no indication the insurgents were hit, she said.The two deaths raised to 505 the official number of US service members who have died since the US-led coalition launched the Iraq war on March 20.The attack on the laundry workers took place on Wednesday in Fallujah, 65 km west of Baghdad, when the nine women were being driven to work, said Khajiq Serkis, the driver who was shot in the leg.In the city of Diwaniya, 200 km south of Baghdad, Spanish Civil Guard commander Gonzalo Perez Garcia was shot in the head Thursday after a pre-dawn raid with Iraqi police at the home of a suspected terrorist leader, according to a Spanish Defense Ministry statement in Madrid.He was taken to a US military hospital in Baghdad in a serious condition.- Nampa-APAlso yesterday, gunmen firing from a van killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded three others in an attack on a checkpoint between Fallujah and Ramadi, and the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Saddam Hussein’s Baath party was slain by an unidentified attacker in the southern city of Basra, police said. Major Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said insurgents fired mortars and rockets at a US military encampment outside the town of Baqouba, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday evening, killing the two soldiers and critically wounding another. The three soldiers were standing outside the tactical operations centre when the barrage hit, she said. The attack also damaged vehicles. US forces launched a counterattack but there was no indication the insurgents were hit, she said. The two deaths raised to 505 the official number of US service members who have died since the US-led coalition launched the Iraq war on March 20. The attack on the laundry workers took place on Wednesday in Fallujah, 65 km west of Baghdad, when the nine women were being driven to work, said Khajiq Serkis, the driver who was shot in the leg. In the city of Diwaniya, 200 km south of Baghdad, Spanish Civil Guard commander Gonzalo Perez Garcia was shot in the head Thursday after a pre-dawn raid with Iraqi police at the home of a suspected terrorist leader, according to a Spanish Defense Ministry statement in Madrid. He was taken to a US military hospital in Baghdad in a serious condition. – Nampa-AP