Civilian Killed, Two GIs Hurt in Tikrit Attack

TIKRIT, Iraq – Guerrilla fighters attacked a U.S. convoy with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms in Tikrit on Wednesday, killing an Iraqi civilian working as a translator for the occupation force and wounding two soldiers, Maj. Bryan Luke, of the 4th Infantry Division said.

The interpreter was the second civilian working with U.S. soldiers to be killed this month in the city, hometown of Saddam Hussein.

Luke said the victims were traveling in a three-vehicle convoy in the Tikrit (search) market district. He said U.S. forces were conducting a raid in search of the attackers and were acting on tips given by Tikrit citizens.

The last attack in the city to kill a civilian was a roadside bombing of a convoy carrying a man who worked for Kellogg Brown & Root. The company has been doing work at the Baiji refinery and pipeline terminus (search) about 30 miles north of Tikrit, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Baghdad.

Tikrit lies in the "Sunni Triangle," territory west and north of Baghdad and the region where virtually all U.S. soldiers have been killed in guerrilla attacks since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major fighting over on May 1.

A civilian worker also was killed earlier this month in Basra (search) in the south of the country during a weekend of violence over electricity cuts and fuel shortages. That person, of Nepalese origin, was delivering mail and apparently was caught in a cross fire.

Hundreds of civilian workers in Iraq are employed by Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, a Houston-based oilfield-services and construction company. Halliburton, the former company of Vice President Dick Cheney, has major contracts for reconstruction in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

No U.S. soldier has been reported killed in Iraq since Monday.