Guerrillas Ambush U.S. Convoys in Iraq [View All]

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030918/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=1480

KHALDIYAH, Iraq - Guerrillas ambushed two U.S. military convoys with remote-controlled bombs in separate attacks Thursday, wounding two Americans and sparking a heavy gunbattle in which a 20-year-old man was shot in the chest and two trucks were destroyed.

In the nearby town of Fallujah, witnesses said an American patrol opened fire on guests at a wedding, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding six people, after mistaking celebratory gunfire for an attack.

The violence heightened tensions in the "Sunni Triangle," a belt of central Iraq that has been the heart of resistance against the American-led occupation. U.S. soldiers in the region are extremely jumpy, caught in what has become a guerrilla war.

North of Baghdad, fire raged at an oil pipeline following an explosion at the site, the U.S. military said, raising concerns that it was the latest in a series of sabotage attacks. The pipeline carries crude oil from fields near Kirkuk to Iraq's largest refinery at Beiji.

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A crowd of Iraqis hold up portraits of Saddam Hussein and pieces of burned U.S. military U.S.vehicles as they celebrate at a site where American troops were ambushed near Khaldiyah Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003. U.S. military vehicles were attacked in two seperate incidents around the town of Khaldiyah, 100 kilometers, 60 miles west of Baghdad Thursday. The U.S. military in Baghdad said two American soldiers were wounded. Al-Arabiya television reported eight Americans were killed and one wounded.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)