Military

DATE=12/26/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ/ATTACKS (S-O)

NUMBER=2-311238

BYLINE=CHALLISS McDONOUGH

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Separate attacks in central Iraq have killed four U-S soldiers. V-O-A Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from Baghdad.

TEXT: The deadly attacks all took place near the flashpoint town of Ba'qubah, about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad.

One U-S soldier was killed and another wounded Friday when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy. Other American troops opened fire on their attackers, and the military says they killed two of them.

In a separate incident Friday, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division says a soldier was trying to defuse another bomb, when it exploded and killed him.

Insurgents fired mortars at a U-S military camp near Ba'qubah on Thursday, killing two more soldiers. The town is in the so-called Sunni Triangle, where resistance attacks have been most frequent.

A wave of rocket and mortar attacks struck Baghdad on Thursday, and U-S forces have pounded targets in the capital for three straight nights with artillery and air support. A series of blasts also could be heard Friday from downtown Baghdad, but explosions have become so frequent that residents can rarely tell which side they come from. (SIGNED)

NEB/CEM/MAR/KL