Six more US soldiers were wounded in Iraq on Tuesday and a fatal blast at a mosque fuelled Muslim anger toward US forces, all within hours of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisting Iraq was no new Vietnam. Three soldiers were hurt near Baghdad’s Al-Mustansiriyah University when a makeshift bomb exploded by their vehicle, a military spokesman said. Bystanders saw troops drag four seemingly badly wounded people from the burning wreck. Three others were wounded in two separate grenade attacks. In Falluja, a US commander denied troops had caused the overnight explosion which locals said killed eight people, including clerics, at a mosque. But thousands of Iraqis chanted angry slogans as they buried the dead: ‘‘America is the enemy of God! Avenge the killings!’’ US arrests Najaf Mayor NAJAF: American troops moved in force to arrest US-appointed Mayor of Najaf, Abu Haydar Abdul Mun’im, removing him on kidnapping and corruption charges and detaining 62 of his aides — a step likely to please Najaf’s Shiite residents. The arrest yesterday came on the second day of a US-led sweep across central Iraq aimed at capturing Saddam loyalists and curbing a wave of attacks on troops. Meanwhile, an explosion at an ammunitions depot killed at least three people and injured four in Hadithah, 240 km northwest of Baghdad, according to initial reports from the US military. It was not immediately clear who the ammunition belonged to or what caused the explosion. — AP Battles would ‘‘go on for some time’’, Rumsfeld said. But he hit out at suggestions that almost daily attacks and the deaths of 22 US and six UK soldiers since May 1 meant Iraq was sliding into guerrilla war. Rumsfeld insisted this was no new Vietnam: ‘‘It isn’t. It’s a different time. It’s a different era. It’s a different place.’’ US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said evidence from captured or killed assailants shows professional commandos from Saddam’s old power structure are behind recent attacks on occupying forces. ‘‘These are professional operations, usually small units of five or seven men.showing that there is probably military expertise behind them. These are not spontaneous attacks by angry, laid-off workers,’’ said Bremer. As in Falluja, where Reuters correspondents saw bodies being pulled from debris around a mosque, the cause of the blast was unclear. Some witnesses in Baghdad said the Iraqi car blew up next to the American vehicle while others said a rocket-propelled grenade was fired. ‘‘We were sitting at a cafeteria near the university when we heard a large explosion. US troops pulled out from the vehicle four soldiers,’’ Ya’aroub Abdulillah, a resident, said. ‘‘These explosions are a message to the Americans because they have done nothing for the Iraqi people. There will be more and more explosions,’’ said a local resident. ‘‘All of the dead were imams of mosques and they were taking part in religious classes,’’ said Falluja resident Saad Ali Rihan. ‘‘They were performing their religious duties and US missiles hit them. Is that democracy?’’ The US military launched Operation Desert Sidewinder on Sunday with infantry backed by aircraft and armoured vehicles. ‘‘(The) battles will go on for some time,’’ Rumsfeld said, as US forces said they had detained 180 people in new raids.
