1 Us Soldier Killed Ukrainian Troops

1 US Soldier Killed; Ukrainian Troops fire over Heads of Kut Protesters

Nadia Abou al-Magd reports for AP that guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb on Monday in Baghdad that killed one US soldier and wounded two. Late on Monday, explosions shook the downtown hotel district, but caused no casualties. Near Ramadi on Monday, guerrillas exploded a roadside bomb but missed a US army convoy. The US soldiers responded to the attack with gunfire, which killed two Iraqis.

Unemployment demonstrations were stagd in Amara for a third straight day. In the nearby city of Kut, on Monday, 400 Iraqis marched demanding jobs. Someone in the crowd is alleged to have tossed a grenade at police and at the Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian troops fired above the heads of the protesters.to disperse them.

These are Shiite towns. The mood of the Shiites may worsen if Grand Ayatollah Sistani continues to question the legitimacy of the American plans for transitioning to a sovereign Iraqi government. Although their main discontents are now economic, economics and politics are hard to separate.

Although the US military authorities are claiming that the absolute number of attacks has declined since the capture of Saddam, in fact the numbers of US troops killed or wounded in the month before the capture and in the month after the capture are similar.