U.S. Soldier Fatally Shot at Checkpoint in Iraq

An American soldier was shot dead at a checkpoint near the Syrian border, the U.S. military said Monday.

The soldier was killed late Sunday when a vehicle pulled up to a traffic checkpoint at Al Qaim and the occupants asked for medical help, U.S. Central Command said.

Two people with pistols got out and shot the soldier, who was not immediately identified. His comrades returned fire, killing one attacker and capturing a second. At least one other assailant fled in the vehicle.

The shooting was the latest in a spate of deadly attacks on U.S. military personnel after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Since Baghdad fell April 9, 39 U.S. military personnel have been killed by enemies and 41 in accidents, bringing total American military deaths in the Iraq campaign to 182.

The occupying powers are also grappling with the feeble impact of a nine-day-old U.S. gun amnesty, under which Iraqis have until Saturday to turn in heavy weapons without penalty.

Central Command said Iraqis had turned in 343 pistols and rifles, along with 24 machine guns and 78 antitank weapons. It is a drop in the ocean in terms of the amount of lethal hardware in the hands of the nation’s 24 million people.

Some Iraqis are turning those guns on U.S. troops.

Apart from the shooting near the Syrian border, the military said, soldiers also came under fire Sunday from attackers in a mosque in the Sunni Muslim city of Fallouja for the second time in as many days, but did not shoot back.

Hostility to the United States has run high in the western city since troops killed 15 townspeople in clashes there in April.

More than 3,000 soldiers and dozens of tanks went to the area last week, doubling the U.S. troop presence there.