Soldier dies in latest attack on US in Iraq

A US soldier in Iraq to build ties with the community died after he was shot at Baghdad University yesterday in the latest in a string of increasingly bold attacks on occupying forces.

Washington was also grappling with anger from Turkey after detaining troops belonging to its Nato ally in northern Iraq. Diplomats said there was evidence they were plotting to kill a Kurdish governor but Turkey has rejected the charge.

Turkey said yesterday it expected the soldiers to be released shortly, after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan received assurances from US Vice President Dick Cheney during a telephone conversation.

The dispute threatened to undermine efforts to improve ties between the allies after relations soured following Turkey's refusal to allow US troops to stage attacks on neighbouring Iraq from Turkish soil during the war.

The US military said the victim of yesterday's shooting in Iraq was one of its Civil Affairs soldiers, who wear regular combat gear but specialise in helping with community projects.

Students said he had been inside the university campus in the south of the city, and that a US military helicopter had taken him to hospital. US troops sealed off the campus.

One student, Abdullah Saad, said he saw the soldier on the ground, bleeding from a head wound. He received a "hostile" gunshot wound and died later of his injuries, the military said.

On Saturday a British freelance cameraman, Richard Wild, was also shot dead at close range in central Baghdad, and seven recruits to a US-backed local police force were killed by a remote-controlled bomb in Ramadi, west of the capital.

US and British troops have come under attack almost daily since toppling Saddam Hussein and his Baath party government on April 9. Commanders say the frequency of the violence has remained fairly constant but that it has become deadlier.