U.S. Soldier, 3 Iraqis Killed in Baghdad Blast; 15 Others Hurt

An American soldier and at least three Iraqis were killed Friday when a bomb exploded near a Humvee and a passing minibus on a crowded street here in the capital, as rebel attacks decreased in number but retained their deadly effect.

The explosive detonated about 9 a.m. on the median of a crowded commercial road in the New Baghdad district. The blast felled a tree, left a 5-foot-wide crater, shattered shop windows on both sides of the street and injured at least 15 Iraqis. The toll remained in dispute, with some witnesses saying that more than three Iraqis had died.

“There weren’t any cars on the street when the bomb went off,” said Haider Adil, who owns a grocery store across the site of the blast. The bomb shattered his store windows. “A minibus came out of a side street and was loading some passengers just as a convoy of American Humvees were passing by. The bomb exploded just as the last Humvee was passing.”

Coalition officials portrayed the assaults on American troops and civilians as desperate, last-gasp attempts by insurgents to seize the initiative as the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council prepared for caucuses nationwide to pick delegates to elect a transitional government in June, formally ending the U.S.-led occupation.

“In the immediate phase ahead of us, 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,” L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, said in an interview with Associated Press.

“The dead-enders can see that all this, plus the fact that the Iraqi people will get their sovereignty back, spells trouble for them.”

The blast Friday occurred as the number of attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces decreased to 19 daily over the last week, down from as many as 35 a day last month, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition’s deputy director of operations, told reporters in Baghdad.

The coalition has sent a message, Kimmitt said: “We will come after you, we will kill you or we will capture you.”

“We’re here to provide a safe and secure environment for not only coalition forces but the people of Baghdad as well,” he said. “But the enemy has the final vote on whether he wants to attack again. All we can do is continue to use intelligence to go after him, to stop him before the next attack.”

The explosion came a day before Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s stop in Kirkuk. Rumsfeld arrived today from Tbilisi, Georgia, where he told that country’s leaders that the United States supports Georgia’s independence.

Having lived under an authoritarian regime that maintained control in the streets even as it selectively persecuted citizens, Baghdad residents such as Shanshal Ahmed Darraji have lost faith in the coalition’s ability to improve safety.

Darraji, who witnessed Friday’s explosion, urged the Governing Council to expedite a plan to form a national militia.

“We condemn this act, because the only ones affected are innocent civilians,” he said. The Governing Council “has to do something about this. Why don’t they let armed forces like the Badr Brigade or the [Kurdish] peshmerga take care of security instead of the Americans?”

Witnesses described a bloody scene at the site of the New Baghdad blast, apparently brought on by guerrillas in a black BMW with tinted windows that blocked the road in front of the American convoy before racing off into a side street.

One victim, a 20-year-old building guard, was killed instantly, leaving a pool of blood and tissue on the sidewalk. A woman in her 40s lost her leg and died en route to Al Kindi Hospital. A 45-year-old man with severe head injuries also died at the hospital. Doctors said it was clear when he arrived that he had little chance of surviving.

Of the 13 other patients at Al Kindi, perhaps five were treated and released for minor injuries and the rest were transferred to other hospitals. One man remained in serious condition, with substantial head injuries.

The name of the dead U.S. soldier was withheld pending notification of relatives.

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Researcher Said Raffi contributed to this report.