A U.S. soldier was killed in fighting
north of Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two
companions in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Sunday. Three other
U.S. soldiers were killed when their vehicle rolled into a canal
Sunday, the military said. The men from Task Force Danger were on a
combat patrol near the town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the
U.S. command said in a statement. A fourth Task Force Danger soldier
was killed and one was wounded in fighting near Samarra, a flash point
of the insurgency 60 miles north of Baghdad, the military said. In the
southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, an Iraqi translator for Italian
troops and his son were shot to death Sunday, a spokesman for Italy's
military said. Hassan Khiwaet Ghali, 51, and his 20-year-old son,
Salah, were killed near their home, said Lt. Col. Francesco Tirino,
spokesman for the Italian contingent in Nasiriyah. The elder Ghali had
worked for the Italian contingent since summer 2003. In violence in the
north, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near
Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two
Iraqi national guardsmen were also killed while trying to defuse a bomb
along Mosul's airport road. [more]