Two blasts wound three US soldiers in Iraq

Two separate blasts in central Iraq wounded three US soldiers yesterday in an increasingly bloody guerilla campaign against occupation forces in the Sunni Muslim heartland.

In the first incident two US soldiers were slightly wounded when an explosion damaged their Humvee vehicle on the outskirts of Baghdad, a US military officer said.

The second blast in Khan Dhari, some 30 kilometres west of Baghdad, was set off by an anti-tank mine, a rare tactic in a land where the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is the weapon of choice, soldiers said at the scene.

US forces were distributing water and propane gas in Khan Dhari when the anti-tank mine exploded under a Bradley fighting vehicle in an open field near the propane station. The ruined Bradley was left in a ditch, motor oil spewn about.

The blast whipped up a dust cloud and rained mud on the convoy for several seconds. Panicked residents fled the scene with their just filled propane tanks. Soldiers barked out orders to clear the area, pointing their M-16s when English failed to make the point. The Bradley's driver, Specialist Justin Howard of Georgia, sustained back injuries and was taken away on a stretcher.

"I feel very lucky. Scared, too," he said. A purported audio tape from ousted President Saddam Hussein broadcast yesterday told Iraqis covert guerilla attacks were the best way to end the US occupation. "Returning to covert attacks is the appropriate means for resistance," said the voice, which sounded like Saddam, although there was no immediate independent confirmation of the speaker's identity.

Two vehicles drove over the mine first without triggering it, one a Humvee carrying a Reuters reporter embedded with the artillery battalion and the other a truck that had just distributed 3,000 gallons (11,400 litres) of drinking water.

"It split the hull of the Bradley. Imagine what it would have done to us. There would be no more Humvee," said Specialist Leo May, the vehicle's driver.

"They know we come here every day to try to do good things for the people. They say patterns make you vulnerable but we can't move the propane station every day," battery commander Captain Matthew Payne told Reuters at the scene.