Naseer Al-Nahr • Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 18 June 2003 — US troops raided houses and sealed off roads in central Baghdad after an American soldier was killed by a sniper on Monday night.

At least 41 soldiers have been killed by hostile action since May 1, when US President George W. Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq. The US military blames the attacks on Iraqis loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein.

“The soldier, who was taking part in a patrol, was sitting in a military vehicle when he was struck in the back by a small caliber bullet,” a US Army statement said. It said he was given urgent medical treatment but died early yesterday.

Unrest and pockets of anti-American hostility continued yesterday, with drive-by shootings against Iraqi officials — apparently aimed at discouraging cooperation with the Americans. In Fallujah, 55 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, suspected anti-American insurgents fired shots into the mayor’s office and the courthouse. In the nearby town of Khaldiyah, more shots were fired into a police station on Monday night. No injuries were reported.

In a separate incident, a car exploded on Monday night in western Baghdad, and residents said a woman and young girl had been killed. They said the blast happened at an intersection where US troops were manning a checkpoint earlier in the day.

There was no explanation for what caused the blast but one US officer said it was a suspected car bomb and that two soldiers had been hurt. A military spokesman said the reports were being checked but could not yet be confirmed.

The red Volkswagen Passat was torn apart by the explosion, with its roof sheared off and its interior shredded.

At dawn, troops blocked streets with armored vehicles and searched houses in the capital across the Tigris River. One woman told soldiers that several people in the district were former supporters of Saddam’s Baath Party.

“Six or seven houses in my street are inhabited by Baathists. They have machine guns and other weapons,” she said. “They shoot in the air at night and we can’t sleep.”

Soldiers said they had seized several weapons during house-to-house searches. A two-week amnesty for Iraqis to hand in heavy weapons ended Sunday. Anyone caught with illegal firearms now faces a fine and up to a year in jail.

The US military entered its third day of a nationwide sweep dubbed Operation Desert Scorpion that aims to arrest anti-American insurgents and find heavy weapons. Military officials announced that US troops had detained 412 people and conducted 69 raids during the three days of sweeps in Baghdad and northern Iraq.