Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 3 March 2004 — Two more soldiers were killed yesterday and the US death toll in Iraq hit the 600 mark with the killings, while in the restive town of Fallujah community leaders slammed the mutilation of two slain Americans but stopped short of condemning their murders.

In a statement, the US military said one soldier from the 1st Armored Division was killed and another wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the Al-Mansur district of Baghdad early yesterday.

On Thursday, a US Marine was killed as “a result of enemy action” in the Al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, the statement added.

The latest deaths brought the overall US death toll in Iraq to 600, including 408 deaths from hostile fire and 192 from causes unrelated to combat.

Well over half the combat deaths — 293 — have been inflicted since May 1 when US President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations.

The worsening security situation meanwhile led organizers to postpone the Destination Baghdad Expo fair which was to have opened here next week.

More than 200 companies from over 26 countries had been scheduled to participate and thousands of local companies had registered to attend amid efforts to rebuild Iraq, said the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In the flashpoint town of Fallujah, scene of the horrific murder of four US civilians in a rebel ambush Wednesday, community leaders denounced the mutilation of two of the victims in an apparent bid to stave off harsh retaliation by US forces.

“Mutilating bodies is prohibited whomever these bodies belonged to. God, Islam and the Prophet Muhammad prohibit mutilation,” Sheikh Khaled Ahmad told worshipers during Friday prayers in Fallujah, a bastion of anti-US insurgency.

Ahmad however stopped short of condemning the ambush attack but made it clear that insurgents opposing the US-led occupation could not have been involved in the mutilation.

Following the attack, jubilant residents dismembered two charred bodies and publicly paraded them through the town.

Ahmad railed against international outrage at the gruesome killings, asking why the world is silent “when dozens of Iraqis and Palestinians are killed every day.”

With police and paramilitary forces deployed in the area amid expectations of US reprisals, town leaders rushed to denounce the mutilation.

“The City Council held a meeting late last night to condemn the acts of mutilation of the bodies,” council president Saadallah Al-Rawi told reporters.