October 8, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 11, 1424

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BAGHDAD, Oct 7: Three US soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in attacks west of Baghdad, the US military said on Tuesday, while in the capital a mortar bomb just missed Iraq’s foreign ministry amid continuing unrest six months after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The latest bloodshed was reported as Iraq’s Governing Council reviewed recommendations on the writing of a new constitution, a pillar of Washington’s hope to remake the country as a western-style democracy.

Two US soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed on Monday in a bomb attack in Al Haswah, 33 kilometres west of Baghdad, a military statement said.

“Two soldiers, attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, were killed and two were wounded in Al Haswah on Oct 6. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed in the attack,” a US military spokesman said in a statement.

Just 50 minutes earlier, a US soldier was killed and one wounded in a bomb attack near the flashpoint town of Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of Baghdad.

“A soldier from the Third Armoured Cavalry Regiment was killed and one was wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack,” the spokesman said.

Ramadi is a cauldron of anti-US sentiment and a major battlefield in the war between US-led coalition occupying forces and diehard supporters of Saddam Hussein.—AFP