June 27, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 26,1424

BAGHDAD, June 26: A driver for the Iraqi power utility was killed by an improvised explosive device on Thursday, as much of Baghdad went into a fourth sweltering day without electricity following the sabotage of a key power line.

Witnesses said two US vehicles were escorting the power company car at the time of the attack on the main highway between Baghdad airport and the city centre. There were no reports of US casualties.

“We are not sure of the type of explosive used,” Lieutenant Sean McWilliams said at the scene, but a US army spokesman said attackers had fired a rocket propelled grenade.

“The vehicle was attacked by one RPG and an improvised explosive,” Colonel Guy Shields said. Iraqi police said a hand grenade was suspected.

Damage sustained by the vehicle was not consistent with a direct hit by an RPG, according to a reporter who saw the vehicle.

Shields also denied reports from Iraqis that the vehicle had been under US escort.

A later RPG attack on a US transporter left two soldiers wounded.

“Two US soldiers sustained non life-threatening injuries,” Sergeant Patrick Compton said, without providing further details on the attack which occurred at Yussufiyah, around 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Baghdad.

A defence official in Washington, meanwhile, said US helicopters were leading an intensive search around 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Baghdad for two US soldiers who appeared to have been abducted along with their Humvee.

Blood was found near their post at the flashpoint town of Balad, but no other trace of the two soldiers or the vehicle, said the official, who asked not to be named.

A military spokesman in Baghdad said the military was investigating reports of two missing soldiers, but provided no further details.

The attacks came as Iraqis expressed growing anger over Washington’s inability to ensure basic services in the capital two-and-a-half months after the entry of US troops.

The authority’s insistence that the power outages were the work of Saddam Hussein loyalists met with exasperation from ordinary Baghdadis forced to make do without refrigeration or air conditioning in temperatures as high as the mid 40s Centigrade.—AFP