November 10, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 14, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

BAGHDAD, Nov 9: A US soldier died and another was wounded in a bomb attack in Baghdad late on Saturday, a military spokeswoman told AFP.

“One soldier was killed and another was wounded in an improvised explosive attack at 7:45 pm” in Baghdad’s Waziriyah neighbourhood, she said.

The death raised to 147 the number of US soldiers killed in combat in Iraq since May 1, 2003, when Washington declared major hostilities over.

TRANSFER OF POWER: The handing over of sovereignty to the Iraqis must be done rapidly, Britain’s special representative to Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock, said in an interview with France’s Journal du Dimanche weekly.

“The transfer of full executive responsibility and authority must be done as quickly as possible,” Greenstock said as uprising escalates.

The British diplomat, second only to US overseer Paul Bremer in occupied Iraq, said, however, that the handover must ensure a new Iraqi system will not collapse and must be safeguarded with a strong constitution.

“At the moment ambassador Bremer, with my support, is talking about the transfer of full executive power within 2004, so long as the principles of the new state are fully established by the Iraqis, properly through the writing of the constitution,” Greenstock said.

MORTAR ATTACK: Several loud blasts echoed across the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Sunday night and police said a mortar bomb hit a house in the centre of the city, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

“A mortar was fired from a nearby highway,” one police officer said at the scene where the two-storey house was hit on Sunday.

Residents said no one had been hurt and there appeared to be little damage. The owner of the home was frantic as US troops arrived to try to cordon off the area. “There is still an explosive on the roof,” shouted Khadija Mohammad. Neighbours said the blast shook their own homes.—Agencies