1 Polish, 2 American soldiers are killed

BAGHDAD - Two American soldiers died in attacks near the capital and along the Syrian border. Poland suffered its first combat death since the aftermath of World War II when a Polish major was fatally wounded Thursday in an ambush south of Baghdad.

One U.S. soldier from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment was killed Thursday when his truck hit a land mine near the Husaybah border crossing point with Syria nearly 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military said.

A paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed and two others were wounded when their patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire near Mahmudiyah, 15 miles south of Baghdad late Wednesday, the military said.

The Polish officer was wounded when insurgents attacked a convoy of 16 Polish soldiers returning from a promotion ceremony for Iraqi civilian defense trainees near Baghdad. Maj. Hieronim Kupczyk, 44, died at a military hospital in Karbala, the Polish Defense Ministry said.

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday signed an $87.5-billion package approved by Congress for Iraq and Afghanistan, calling the money a financial commitment by the United States to the global war to defeat terrorism.

"With this act of Congress, no enemy or friend can doubt that America has the resources and the will to see this war through to victory," Bush said at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

WASHINGTON - Public support is slipping for President Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, with 54 percent now disapproving of his performance on the postwar rebuilding of that country, according to a poll out Thursday.

The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll found that 45 percent approve of his handling of Iraq and 54 percent disapprove. In August, that same poll found 57 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving of Bush's performance on Iraq.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Presidential candidate Wesley Clark called Thursday for L. Paul Bremer, the head of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq, to be fired and replaced with a non-American as part of a broad strategy to end the U.S. occupation.

Clark, a retired Army general and former military commander of NATO, also broke with many of his Democratic rivals by raising the possibility of increasing the number of U.S. troops to complete the mission.

Clark said the United States needs more special forces and other lighter units so the military can "strike hard" against the enemy. He said more Arab-Americans should be recruited to provide cultural expertise.

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