Baghdad — British troops occupying the southern Iraqi city of Basra came under attack Saturday by about 1,000 angry residents protested in the streets over the lack of power, water and gas.
Witnesses said that three British soldiers had been were injured by stones, and two young Iraqi boys were wounded in the melee. A British military spokesman denied any soldiers were hurt.
Elsewhere in the country, U.S. troops came under renewed attacks Saturday that wounded at least four soldiers.
Soldiers on patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk were fired on with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms early Saturday, said Lieutenant-Colonel Bill McDonald, spokesman for troops operating in the area. Two soldiers were wounded in the explosion and were in stable condition. Also Saturday, soldiers west of Kirkuk opened fire on a car that ran a military checkpoint, wounding two Iraqis, Col. McDonald said. The victims were taken to a Kirkuk hospital in stable condition.
In south-central Baghdad, two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on their armoured Humvee vehicle, said Major Todd Mercer of the 82nd Airborne Division.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said troops acting on a tip from an Iraqi seized and destroyed 24 rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosives and other weapons. In two other raids in and around Baghdad in the previous 24 hours, U.S. troops also seized one surface-to-air missile and captured 13 people with 47 AK-47s, the military said.
The Bush administration — which fears Iraqi police don't have the techniques or tools to properly investigate the deadly attack — has also dispatched about 10 FBI agents to were dispatched to secure and analyze evidence left over from last week's bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.
Thursday's attack on the embassy, which killed 19 people and injured at least 50, raised fears that terrorists are at work in Iraq. The bombing was the first such large-scale attack since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces April 9.
Authorities are looking at Ansar al-Islam, which U.S. officials claim is linked to al-Qaeda, as a potential suspect, according to Lieutenant-General Norton Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"The one organization that we have confidence and that we know is in Iraq and in the Baghdad area is Ansar al-Islam," he said. "It is unknown whether this particular organization was associated with the [bombing]. Perhaps that'll become clear as we go down the road.
So far, American authorities have said, they do not believe terrorist groups like Ansar or any other foreign fighters have played a major role in the guerrilla war against American occupation forces. They believe instead that the attacks are the work of remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, his Republican Guard, Fedayeen militia and intelligence services.
