Bomb, Ambush Injure Four U.S. Troops in Iraq

Three U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy in Beiji, west of Baghdad, and insurgents shot and wounded another soldier in an ambush on a foot patrol in Tikrit, the military said Monday.

All four of those wounded in the Sunday attacks were evacuated to combat-support hospitals for treatment, the military said.

In northern Iraq, a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi man Monday and wounded three others outside Kirkuk, said Iraqi police Lt. Abdel Salam Zangana, who said he believed the bomb was intended for U.S. soldiers but detonated early.

Gunmen also wounded Mohammed Jawadi, a lawyer appointed by the U.S.-led coalition, and his son Monday in the northern city of Mosul, witnesses said. Sources at the local hospital said that Jawadi was in critical condition but that his son’s life was not in danger.

The violence underscored remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the U.S.-led coalition must “get on top of the security situation” in Iraq as the country prepares for self-rule. Blair was in the southern city of Basra on Sunday for an unannounced visit to the 10,000 British troops serving in Iraq.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said British forces would probably remain in the country for years to come. He said that he could not give an “exact timescale” for their withdrawal but added that “it is not going to be months.... I can’t say whether it is going to be 2006, 2007.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Monday that the Army had discharged three soldiers for abusing Iraqi prisoners of war in southern Iraq. The three were found guilty of beating and harassing prisoners at Camp Bucca, Lt. Col. Vic Harris said.

He named the three as Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, 35; Staff Sgt. Scott McKenzie, 38; and Spc. Timothy Canjar, 21.

The soldiers said they acted in self-defense.