Guerrillas kill two in Iraq

Reuters Mon 8 December, 2003 15:47

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier and a policeman were killed in separate attacks in Iraq as the continuing violence prompted dozens of South Korean contractors to pull out of the country and Bangladesh to close its embassy.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the U.S. Army in Iraq, said the soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul, which has seen an upsurge in attacks on American troops. "There was a drive-by shooting by four Iraqis. They shot and killed him," Kimmitt told a news conference on Monday.

The shooting brought to 308 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq since they invaded in March, including 193 killed since major combat was declared over on May 1.

On Sunday, a roadside bomb blast in Mosul killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two. Last month guerrillas mortared the headquarters of the 101st Airborne, killing one soldier.

In Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a police bomb disposal expert was killed when a tank round planted on a busy street was detonated by remote control, a U.S. military commander in the city said.

Iraqi police and others seen to be working or cooperating with U.S. and allied authorities are increasingly the target of attacks. Last month 17 policemen were killed in twin bomb blasts in and near Baquba.

Earlier on Monday, a group of South Korean electrical workers left Baghdad for Jordan following the killing of two of their colleagues by guerrillas late last month. More than 40 contractors working for South Korea's Ohmu Electric Co Ltd on a project to rebuild Iraq's power infrastructure have left in the past two days, the latest blow to U.S.-led efforts to reconstruct the country.

Bangladesh said it had closed its embassy in Baghdad and evacuated its diplomats to neighbouring Jordan after an e-mail threat to blow up the mission.