Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 27 April 2004 — Two US soldiers were killed yesterday as an explosion leveled part of a building as they searched it for suspected production of “chemical munitions.” In the Sunni town of Fallujah a fragile truce broke down as US soldiers and Iraqi fighters traded heavy weapons fire in which at least one US soldier and eight Iraqis were killed.

In the explosion at Baghdad’s Waziriyah district five US soldiers were also wounded. A cheering mob of Iraqis looted the four wrecked Humvees, taking away weapons and equipment.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical munitions were believed to be produced at the site. After the blast, there was no sign in the area of precautions against chemicals. “Chemical munitions could mean any number of things,” including smoke grenades, he said.

Some residents said the building held a perfume factory, while others said it had once been a scrap metal workshop that repaired weapons and recycled old ammunition.

The fighting in Fallujah sent two large columns of heavy black smoke over the northern Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a large concentration of fighters. Explosions rang out, along with the sound of mortars and heavy machine guns.

A mosque, which Kimmitt said the fighters were firing from, was damaged.

In the south, US troops rolled into a base in Najaf to replace Spanish forces who are withdrawing and to increase pressure on the militia of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. The deployment brings the Americans about six kilometers from holy sites at the heart of the city.

US commanders have said they will not go near the holy shrines, a move that could spark outrage among the Shiites.

As Iraq resumed its oil exports yesterday after a two-day interruption, a statement apparently from top Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a suicide boat attack on the Basra oil terminal at the weekend.

“We give you good tidings... your brothers with their boats targeted oil tankers in Mina Al-Amiq and Mina Al-Bakr,” said the statement signed by Zarqawi and published on Muntada Al-Ansar website. Basra terminal was previously known as Mina Al-Bakr.

In Sofia, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said President Georgi Parvanov’s convoy came under attack by gunmen late on Sunday during a surprise visit to his country’s forces in Karbala.

The ministry said the president was not hurt in the attack on his convoy which was fired on as it traveled between the camps of Bulgarian and Polish troops in the flashpoint city.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya TV broadcast a tape showing three Italians held captive in Iraq and said their captors would kill them in five days if the Italian people do not protest at their country’s military presence in Iraq.