Series of Attacks Injures 7 U.S. Troops in Iraq

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq July 8 — A blistering series of attacks, coming nearly hourly, left seven U.S. soldiers wounded in and around the capital on Tuesday, while the U.S. led provisional authority announced a ,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone who kills a coalition soldier or Iraqi police officer.

Tuesday brought fresh attacks in what has become a bloody and uncertain peace for coalition forces.

Insurgents dropped a homemade bomb from a bridge onto a passing U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, injuring two soldiers. Another two soldiers were injured when their vehicle struck a land mine in the capital, said Sgt. Patrick Compton, a military spokesman.

In Kirkuk, 175 miles north of the capital, assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a military convoy, injuring three servicemen. The patrol returned fire, but there was no word of Iraqi casualties or arrests.

In other violence, witnesses said three Iraqis including a 13-year-old boy were killed following a grenade attack on a police station in a Baghdad suburb. Witnesses told Associated Press Television News that those killed when soldiers returned fire were not among those who attacked the police station.

Late Monday, insurgents fired mortars at a base near Balad, 55 miles north of the capital, the military said. U.S. forces subsequently caught 12 of the suspected attackers. A British soldier was wounded in a sniper attack in Basra, southern Iraq, while on patrol Sunday night, the Defense Ministry said. The soldier was in stable condition at a British army field hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds in a leg, the British government said.

Since President George W. Bush declared on May 1 that major combat in Iraq was over, 29 U.S. troops have been killed by hostile fire and 44 others have died in accidents and other non-hostile circumstances, a total of 73.