November 5, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 9, 1424

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BAGHDAD, Nov 4: Two more soldiers of the US-led coalition and three Iraqis died as Iraq plunged further into violence with attacks on US troops growing bolder and civilians increasingly caught in the crossfire.

A coalition soldier was killed and another wounded when an explosive device blew up in Baghdad on Tuesday, a military spokeswoman said, adding that the two were probably Americans.

If the soldier is confirmed to be American, the US combat toll will climb to 141 since May 1, when Washington declared major hostilities had ended.

Two Iraqis died there late Monday when a bomb exploded near the Baratha hotel behind Al-Mukhayam mosque, according to witness Ibrahim al-Juburi.

On Tuesday, US troops were still searching for pieces of wreckage of a military helicopter that was shot down two days earlier, killing 16 soldiers, near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

JUDGE SHOT DEAD: Gunmen shot dead a prominent Iraqi judge outside his home in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, a day after another judge was kidnapped and killed in the south of the country, police said.

A witness said a car with tinted windows suddenly pulled up outside the home of Ismail Youssef, a judge in Mosul’s appeals court, at about 7:45am (0945 PST) and men got out and shot him several times in the chest and side, police said.

The 60-year-old judge’s family said they did not know why he had been attacked. Some judges with links to ousted president Saddam Hussein’s Baath party were fired after the US-led war, but Youssef remained on the judge’s bench.

On Monday, a senior judge in the southern city of Najaf was kidnapped and killed by what his deputy said were gunmen carrying out the orders of Saddam.

Aref Aziz said he was kidnapped along with Mohan Jaber al-Shoueili on Monday. Aziz said he was released after Shoueili was shot dead.

“The gunmen said they were carrying out a judgment from Saddam,” Aziz said.

FRESH ATTACK: On Tuesday night, insurgents fired several mortars or rockets at the US-led administration headquarters in Baghdad, wounding four people in the second brazen attack on the compound in as many nights.

The explosions boomed across Baghdad, easily felt by Reuters reporters staying in a hotel across the river Tigris. The Pentagon said three of the wounded were from the US-occupation forces, although it was not known if they were military or civilian.

An Iraqi guard at the scene said three explosions hit the compound itself, one of Saddam Hussein’s former palace complexes, but a US army spokesman in Baghdad could not confirm that.

“There were three explosions in central Baghdad but we don’t know where. There are four reported wounded,” said the spokesman.

Earlier, US troops in Humvees with powerful spotlights sped to an area along the nearby Tigris, where several shots of gunfire were heard.

“There were a lot of soldiers running around, there was a lot of panic. I haven’t seen any injured people,” said Mohammad Shikri, the Iraqi guard at the complex. Journalists were prevented from entering the area.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Lt-Col James Cassella, said reports were unclear on the location of the blasts.

He said initial reports suggested they might have been caused by projectiles such as a missile or mortar fire and not a car or truck bomb, but that was not certain.—AFP / Reuters