BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi leaders condemned Israel's killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and expressed fears it would plunge their war-torn country into further chaos.
As Iraq braced for the worst, an explosion outside a US military base north of Baghdad killed one Iraqi paramilitary and wounded eight civilians, while a bombing near the capital claimed the lives of a US soldier and his interpreter.
The assassination of the wheel-chair bound Yassin threatned to fan the flames of violence in Iraq, already snared in a lethal battle between US forces and suspected Islamic extremists.
"Such assassinations only feed terrorist networks who will take it as a justification for them to conduct attacks under the pretense of revenge," said a deputy for interim Governing Council member Ibrahim al-Jaffari.
With the United States a close ally of Israel, Adnan al-Assadi warned that the killing of the 67-year-old cleric would only further endanger US personnel and interests in Iraq.
"This could happen in Iraq because the Israelis are well protected in Israel and the Americans are more vulnerable here in Iraq. It could escalate the dangers in Iraq," warned Assadi, of the fundamentalist Shiite Dawa party.
The Governing Council members worried about the reverberations of the killing of the militant cleric for Iraq, which stands as the US test model for promoting democracy in the Middle East.
"We condemn the killing, which will only serve to strengthen the justifications for terrorist acts in the world and does not serve peace," Governing Council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told AFP.
"It's not going to affect the Iraqis themselves, but there are terorrists in Iraq who are not Iraqis. They are coming to Iraq," Rubaie said, raising worries over attacks in a country regularly jolted by suicide and car bombings.
The wheel-chair bound leader of the Islamic radical movement, who sanctioned suicide bombings in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, was widely viewed in the West as a terrorist.
However, in the Arab world, he was seen by many as both a symbol of the Palestinian nationalist struggle and a respected religious figure.
Even the allies of America on its hand-picked Governing Council were careful to pay homage to Yassin, whose organisation was branded a terrorist group by the US government.
"We are losing a leading resistance figure and a great religious guide in Palestine, the Arab world and the Muslim world," Rubaie said.
The bloodshed Iraqis fears in the countdown to the country's regaining of sovereignty on June 30 manifested itself Monday in an attack on civilians working with US forces.
One Iraqi paramilitary was killed and eight civilians wounded in an explosion of what was thought to be a car bomb Monday at the entrance to a US base near Balad, 75 kilometres (47 miles) north of Baghdad, a member of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps told AFP.
The explosion occurred in a line of vehicles where each morning Iraqi contractors and construction workers enter the base, the ICDC member told AFP.
Overnight, a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, and nine soldiers were also wounded in various attacks in the Iraqi capital, the military said Monday.
Added to an AFP tally, the latest US death raises to 281 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush declared major hostilities in Iraq over on May 1.
Another six soldiers were lightly wounded in attacks from a rocket-propelled grenade, small arms fire and homemade bomb, while sweeping for insurgents and weapons in Baghdad, the army said, adding that they had returned to duty.
Seven suspects were arrested and several weapons and ammunition seized in the sweeps, the statement said.
Near the town of Samarra, 125 kilometres (75 miles) north of Baghdad, a US soldier was killed in a live-firing accident that took place before he was due to head out on patrol, a statement early Monday said.