A spate of roadside bombings killed a U.S. soldier and at least nine Iraqis in Baghdad and north of the capital Saturday, officials said. Two Macedonians were kidnapped in southern Iraq, while a search was underway for a private German plane missing in the north.
An Iraqi police major, meanwhile, was assassinated by drive-by gunmen in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, in the latest attack targeting security forces that the United States hopes will eventually take control
of Iraq. The U.S. military said a roadside bomb struck an American vehicle at about 8 a.m. in eastern Baghdad, killing a soldier assigned to the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.
The death, the first reported by the command since Tuesday, took the number of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq to at least 2,273 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The attack happened near the Shaab soccer stadium, and the area was cordoned off by U.S. and Iraqi forces. An American helicopter landed at the scene to take the victim away.
Shortly after, a roadside bomb exploded on an eastern Baghdad highway and killed two Iraqi policemen guarding an oil tanker, Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. Three other police were wounded and the tanker was not damaged. Another concealed bomb detonated at 8:45 a.m. as a police patrol passed by in eastern Baghdad's Ghadir area, missing the policemen but killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding four driving in two cars, Lt. Ali Abbas said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq