Military

DATE=12/30/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ/VIOLENCE (S)

NUMBER=2-311326

BYLINE=CHALLISS McDONOUGH

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A roadside bomb has exploded in downtown Baghdad, killing at least one Iraqi civilian and severely wounding another. It is the second bombing in the same neighborhood in three days. V-O-A correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from

Baghdad.

TEXT:

/// NAT SOUND, SWEEPING GLASS ///

A shopkeeper in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood shovels broken glass in the wake of yet another bomb attack.

U-S soldiers say insurgents apparently placed the bomb on the concrete median strip between the two sides of a major road and detonated it as an American military convoy passed by. But the troops say no American soldiers were injured. The casualties were Iraqis.

It is the second time in two days the busy Karrada shopping district has been hit. On Sunday, another roadside bomb killed one American soldier and two

Iraqi children.

Residents and shoppers have angrily denounced the attacks, but they are also growing more frustrated than ever with the U-S-led occupation.

Iraqi police and American troops are tightening security in the already tense capitol ahead of the New Year holiday, when they fear there could be another

upsurge in violence. (Signed)

NEB/CEM/ALW