Iraq

Roadside bomb kills soldier, 3 Iraqis

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least three Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed Friday when a remote-controlled bomb exploded beside a U.S. military patrol as it drove along a popular shopping boulevard in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi police officials said.

The explosives damaged one of three passing Humvees, killing a soldier from the U.S. Army's 22nd Signal Brigade, according to U.S. officials.

The blast, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m. as shops were opening, rocked a packed minibus traveling in the opposite direction. Police said at least 12 Iraqis were wounded. But shop owners said the toll could have been much higher if the explosion had taken place on a day other than Friday, when the streets were largely empty for the Muslim day of prayer.

Haidar Aziz Kazim, 11, said he was shopping with his mother and aunt when the explosion occurred.

"I blame Saddam Hussein for what happened," said Kazim. "They are hurting ordinary Iraqis, not the Americans."

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi guerrillas will step up attacks in the next few months in an attempt to thwart a transfer of sovereignty from the occupation authority to a new Iraqi government, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq said Friday.

But L. Paul Bremer said U.S. forces were getting better intelligence in the fight against insurgents who stage attacks daily. Hours before he spoke, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, killing one soldier. Two Iraqi civilians also died and 13 were wounded.

"Between now and the end of June, we will actually see an increase in attacks, because the people who are against us now realize that there's huge momentum behind both the economic and political reconstruction of this country," Bremer said.

RECONSTRUCTION DEAL: Sixteen nations, including the United States, Japan and some European countries, agreed to insure payment of up to $2.4-billion worth of exports to Iraq to jump-start the country's economy. Iraq's interim trade minister, Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, said the deal would do for Iraq what the Marshall Plan did for Europe after World War II.

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