poland suffers first casualty in Iraq

A Polish officer has been killed in Iraq after an attack on a military convoy - the first fatality suffered by Warsaw's troops in the country.

A Polish military spokesman in Warsaw says no further information on the incident is immediately available.

Earlier, guerrillas firing rocket-propelled grenades and guns killed one US soldier and wounded two others in an ambush south of Baghdad.

The US Central Command says the attack took place near the town of Mahmudiya, and involved soldiers involved from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

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WARSAW, Nov 6 (AFP) - Poland mourned its first fatality in Iraq on Thursday, when one of its officers was killed in an attack on a military convoy days before a visit by Prime Minister Leszek Miller.

The officer, identified as 44-year-old Major Hieronim Kupczyk, died from neck injuries after unidentified attackers opened fire on a four-vehicle convoy carrying around 15 soldiers through Al-Mussayih, north of the Shiite holy town of Karbala.

"At 12 am (0900 GMT) one Polish soldier was seriously wounded by small arms fire on a military convoy 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Karbala," an officer with the US-led coalition told AFP.

"The soldiers in the convoy returned fire and the wounded soldier was immediately taken to a military hospital but he died as a result of his wounds. "

The Polish soldiers were returning to their base from a promotion ceremony for the Iraqi civil defence corps, held at Camp Dogwood near Baghdad.

Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said Kupczuk's death showed circumstances in Iraq were getting more difficult.

"This tragic event proves that the situation in Iraq is getting more complicated," he told a news conference.

"Terrorists are becoming more and more professional, as are those who lay traps and plant bombs, as are those who carry out suicide attacks.

"A clear conclusion for the coalition -- we have to speed up the establishment of police in Iraq and the creation of an Iraqi army."

The Polish government observed a minute's silence when it heard of Kupczuk's death.

But President Aleksander Kwasniewski said there would be no change of strategy for Poland, which commands a 9,000-strong multinational force in Iraq.

"It is an extremely painful moment that will nevertheless not change our strategy. Up to now we were able to avoid casualties. But this is war and victims are always possible," Kwasniewski told a news conference.

"It is one of the saddest days of my life," he said, sending his condolences to the soldier's family.

Poland fought alongside the United States and Britain in the war that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein seven months ago.

It now heads a multinational force patrolling a large swathe of central and southern Iraq. It has 2,500 soldiers in the oil-rich country, the fourth largest military contingent after the United States, Britain and Italy.

Kupczuk's death comes just days before the Polish prime minister is scheduled to arrive in Iraq. Miller will be only the second western leader to go to Iraq since the end of the US-led war.

The death toll among the US military in Iraq rises almost daily. But while they have come under attack before, Polish soldiers had, until Thursday, been spared casualties.

In late September a Polish military patrol engaged in an exchange of fire at Al Hilla, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing one attacker.

And on October 30 a Polish military convoy was attacked, again in the Karbala area, but escaped unscathed.

By Thursday, 142 US soldiers had died in combat in Iraq since May 1, when Washington declared major hostilities over.

Senior defence officials in Washington said the Pentagon was preparing to rotate its forces in Iraq next year and cut back US troop numbers to 100,000, while increasing the size of the Iraqi security forces.

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