Two U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head back to Iraq now where a new day brings word of new U.S. casualties. Officials at Central Command say two more troops have died, one from a non-hostile gunshot wound, and the other apparently drowned in the Euphrates River. CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Baghdad with the latest developments. Hello, Rym.</s>RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, John. Indeed, those two latest developments announced just today, but it appears that the two soldiers had died previously. Now, we've just heard of word of another incident. Now, this happened in the city of Najaf, two Iraqis were killed, another one was wounded, when an explosion occurred in that holy city that's about 160 kilometers, a two-hour drive south of the Iraqi capital. The event was witnessed by Marines, but Iraqi police are now present at the scene. As you know, Najaf is a holy city to Shiite Muslims. We'll be updating you on that as we get more information. And another attack, it seems at any rate, against U.S. soldiers. As you know, there are regular attacks against them. One what seems to be an attack on the western highway from Baghdad; a Humvee was apparently the last vehicle in a convoy. It was -- there was an explosion say eyewitnesses. When they went to the scene they say they saw that Humvee on fire. Soldiers closed in on that area preventing anyone from exceeding it, while they evacuated a couple of injured soldiers, according to eyewitnesses; and evacuated the vehicle as well. Now, all that means there are still a lot of issues with regard to security. We spoke -- we were briefed a short moment ago by a military spokesman. Here's what he had to say.</s>COL. GUY SHIELDS, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN: Over the last 48 hours we've had 25 attacks against coalition forces, with the average being slightly more than 12 a day. You know, it is on average. We take each and every attack seriously: look at it, investigate it, see if there's anything that we can use from that attack to help us prevent another attack.</s>BRAHIMI: A spokesman from the coalition authority says they will not be deterred by what he called "these acts of intimidation." And they will continue the projects that they've been working on in order to rebuild Iraq --John.</s>VAUSE: CNN's Rym Brahimi there reporting for us live as always in Baghdad. Thanks, Rym.