By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Roadside bombs killed two U.S. soldiers in separate attacks Monday in Baghdad and a city northeast of the capital, the U.S. military said. Gunmen also killed an American civilian and wounded three others in a weekend ambush south of here.
Also Monday, a grenade exploded near an elementary school in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least one child and wounding four others. The children apparently triggered the grenade while playing where it was hidden, Iraqi police Sgt. Maher Qassim.
One of the roadside bombs exploded at about 9:40 a.m in the center of Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing an American soldier from Task Force Iron Horse, the 4th Infantry Division said.
Two Iraqis were arrested, including one who had a cell phone that may have been used to detonate the bomb, according to Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a division spokesman in Tikrit.
The other fatal bombing occurred in the center of Baghdad about 9:20 a.m., killing one soldier from the 1st Armored Division and wounding another, the military said. The 1st Armored is due to leave Iraq in the coming weeks and be replaced by the 1st Cavalry Division.
The latest deaths bring to 540 the number of U.S. service members have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March. Most have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations, reported an average of 17 engagements a day between U.S. soldiers and insurgents during the past week. The figure is down from an average of about 22-24 engagements each day reported in the previous week.
Also Monday, the U.S. command said gunmen in a white sedan opened fire Saturday on a taxi that was taking Americans from a religious group from the site of the ancient city of Babylon back to Baghdad. The three wounded were taken to a hospital in Mahmudiyah, about 15 miles south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division learned of the attack while patrolling in Mahmudiyah.
The statement did not identify the religious group with which the Americans were affiliated, but a number of Christian humanitarian groups working in Iraq.
Insurgents have been waging a campaign of attacks on U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies and have occasionally targeted aid workers. Robbers also prowl highways outside the capital.
A convoy carrying CNN employees was attacked near Mahmudiyah on Jan. 27. Gunmen opened fire on the vehicles, killing two Iraqis working for the network and wounding a cameraman.
In the northern oil center of Kirkuk, gunmen in a car opened fire at passers-by in a mainly Kurdish neighborhood Sunday night, killing one Kurdish man and wounding two other people, police said. The attackers escaped, Col. Sarhat Qader said.
Ethnic tensions are high in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where Sunni Muslim Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and others are vying for dominance.
Attacks against the U.S.-led occupation force have continued unabated despite the capture of Saddam Hussein on Dec. 13 and the arrest of numerous figures whom the American military has identified as key figures behind the insurgency.
U.S. officials are divided about whether Iraqis or foreign fighters are responsible for recent attacks, including last weekend's bold daylight assault against police and civil defense compounds in Fallujah in which at least 25 people were killed.
On Sunday, a special Iraqi police unit arrested a senior Baath Party leader on the U.S. military's most-wanted list during a raid Sunday on his home in a Baghdad suburb. The capture of Mohammed Zimam Abdul Razaq leaves only 10 top figures still at large from the list of 55 issued after Saddam's regime collapsed.
Abdul Razaq was No. 41, and the four of spades in the military's "deck of cards" of top fugitives.
Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhum Ibrahim touted the arrest as evidence that the still-rebuilding Iraqi police force "can be depended upon in the fight against terrorism" — looking to give his troops a boost following the rout of security forces in Fallujah.
The United States plans to transfer security responsibility to U.S.-trained Iraqi forces after the handover of sovereignty by July 1. However, the blueprint for the handover is in doubt after the country's leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, demanded early elections to choose members of a provisional legislature.
The legislature will in turn select a government to take power June 30. The Americans say early elections are not feasible because of the country's security situation and the lack of voter rolls. The Americans want the legislators selected in regional causes rather than by the voters.
On Sunday, however, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, suggested that the Bush administration would be open to compromise.
"The U.S. is here for a long commitment," he said on ABC's "This Week." "The job is to get a democratic, stable, unified Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors. And that will take time. It isn't going to end on June 30."