An explosive device killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two others Saturday in an attack on an army patrol in the city of Diwaniya, eyewitnesses reported. Eyewitnesses told the Iraqi news agency al-Dar that unidentified assailants planted the explosive device outside the home of Army Brigadier-General Jameel al-Haji in the al-Jaza'er district of Diwaniya. The device was detonated as an Iraqi army patrol drove by. Iraqi military sources said that security forces later arrested three suspects in an orchard near the al-Haji's home. The three were said to be carrying materials used to make explosives. No further details were immediately available about the attack. Elsewhere in the country, members of a US army patrol shot dead one civilian and injured another after coming under an Iraqi insurgent attack in central Fallujah on Saturday, said security sources. The sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that insurgents launched rockets at a US army patrol in the city. The US troops then opened fire arbitrarily in the vicinity resulting in the death of one civilian and the injuring of another, they said. An Iraqi police patrol rushed the two casualties to the Faluja General Hospital, said the sources. The US army's Hummer patrol vehicle was seriously damaged, said the sources. Meanwhile in al-Maqdadiya, 110 kilometers north-east of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a mini-bus that was carrying civilians on Sunday, said security sources. The sources added that one Iraqi civilian was killed and four others injured in the attack.
