More Than 20 Are Killed Across Iraq

Car bombs and gunmen killed more than 20 people Saturday across Iraq, including an American soldier.

Most of the attacks were directed against the U.S. military and Iraqi police, with civilians caught in the violence.

The American soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near a soccer stadium in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It was the first death of an American soldier since Tuesday and brought the number of U.S. personnel killed in the Iraq war to at least 2,273.

Four Iraqi police officers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a fuel tanker on an east Baghdad highway, police said. Another bomb exploded elsewhere in east Baghdad, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding four, police said.

A senior Baghdad police official escaped assassination when a bomb exploded near his convoy in the Karradah district. Brig. Abdul-Karim Maryoush was unharmed but two police escorts died, officials said.

Elsewhere, two Iraqi civilians were killed in a pair of roadside bombings -- one in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, and another in Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of the capital.

A bomb in Fallouja, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killed a child and blew off his brother’s legs, police said.

U.S. soldiers killed three men trying to plant roadside bombs in Baghdad’s notorious Dora neighborhood, police said. At least 10 other Iraqis died in gunfights and ambushes throughout Baghdad, police said.

British and Iraqi authorities, meanwhile, confirmed that two foreigners who disappeared late last week in the southeastern city of Basra were Macedonians kidnapped on their way from the airport to the city center. The kidnappers have demanded a ransom, officials said.

The U.S. command said American and Iraqi troops destroyed 11 roadside bombs and three weapons caches in Baghdad in the previous 24 hours. Twenty-nine suspects were arrested, the command said.

In addition, police found the bodies of four unidentified men -- bound, blindfolded and shot to death -- in three areas of the Iraqi capital.

Also Saturday, a government official released figures showing the effects of the insurgency on the oil industry, the foundation of Iraq’s economy. Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said the industry suffered $6.25 billion in losses in 2005 because of infrastructure sabotage and lost export revenue.