BAGHDAD, July 28: A US soldier was killed in broad daylight in Baghdad on Monday, the US military said, bringing to 50 the number of troops killed in action since they were told major combat in Iraq was over on May 1.

Three others were wounded, one seriously.

Reuters journalists saw one soldier slumped in the wreckage of a Humvee onto which an attacker had dropped a bomb or grenade from a highway bridge at a major intersection. Another was taken away in a truck, covered in blood.

A US officer at the scene told Reuters two of his unit had been badly hurt. One of those died.

Soldiers surrounded the scene after the attack, rifles at the ready. One soldier was motionless in the back seat and another lay in the road.

The US military said in a statement the blast was caused by a homemade device, while some witnesses earlier said it had been a grenade.

“The car went to get some water. When it came back, somebody threw a grenade at it,” First Lieutenant Brian Ryan told Reuters at the scene of the attack.

“The grenade was thrown from the bridge,” said Ali Haadi, a local man who lives nearby.

“One 1st Armoured Division soldier died and three others were wounded... when an unknown number of individuals dropped an improvised explosive device from an overpass onto their convoy,” US Central Command said in a statement.

The incident highlighted the ease with which attackers target US troops. The grenade was dropped on a heavily armed group and the assailant quickly melted away in an area that was not densely populated.—Reuters