BAGHDAD & FALLUJAH, Iraq - One US soldier was killed Wednesday and a second wounded in a drive-by shooting at a filling station in Baghdad, an American military spokesman and a witness said.
"One soldier was killed and one wounded. Both are from the 1st Armored Division," Sergeant First Class Brian Thomas said. "They're treating it as a drive-by attack."
"The wounded soldier was evacuated to an army field hospital where he is listed in stable condition," he later added.
An Iraqi police officer had earlier said that two US soldiers were killed in the incident, which he described as a grenade attack, in Dura, on the southern fringes of the capital.
A manager at the Dura filling station confirmed the US account of a drive-by shooting.
"A car slowly approached and fired at least five bullets at them and then sped away," Ayad Victor said.
"I believe one of the soldiers was killed because he was shot in the throat. Another was wounded, shot in the neck and hand," he added.
Thomas later added that military police believed a separate attacker had approached on foot.
An AFP photographer at the scene in Dura saw a number of US military vehicles arrive to remove two soldiers. The Iraqi policeman said both were dead.
The photographer was then detained by US forces who held his press pass and confiscated his camera, preventing him from taking photographs of the scene for one hour.
The latest death brings to 51 the number of US troops killed since President George W. Bush declared the war in Iraq effectively over on May 1, according to a count from US military statements.
Fifteen of those were killed in attacks and the rest in accidents.
Two Iraqi protesters killed by US troops in Baghdad
US troops opened fire on a crowd of angry protesters in Baghdad Wednesday, killing two former Iraqi soldiers, a US army spokesman said.
The gathering of up to 300 ex-soldiers was demonstrating at the former presidential palace in the center of Baghdad, today coalition headquarters, and threw stones at US troops, who opened fire.
US army spokesman Sergeant First Class Brian Thomas said that two Iraqis had died.
He said a full investigation would be carried out into the shooting.
A reporter who witnessed the firing earlier saw one man fatally shot, apparently from a bullet to the head. Another man was left bleeding after being hit in the shoulder.
The former soldiers were demanding salary arrears still unpaid since the top US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, officially dissolved the Iraqi army on May 23.
Iraqi shot and wounded by US soldier in Fallujah
An Iraqi man was shot and seriously injured by US troops who opened fire on the car he was driving in the flashpoint town of Fallujah Wednesday, one of the passengers said.
A woman soldier fired on the car "without any reason" shortly after noon near Fallujah's industrial zone, said Mohammad Shihata, who was in the front seat.
Driver Abdo Baidan Hussein was seriously wounded in the chest and transferred to the intensive care unit of a local hospital, he said.
A reporter saw blood on the car's left door and the windscreen of the right door shattered. A US soldier said an investigation had been launched into the incident.
Fallujah has been a hotbed of anti-US unrest since US soldiers killed at least 16 people in the conservative Sunni Muslim city 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad in late April.
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