URGENT / 2 US patrols attacked in Diwaniya

DIWANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Two American Army patrols have been the targets of two explosions in southern Iraq’s Diwaniya city at dawn on Saturday. Losses are not yet know, a police source noted.  “A U.S. Army vehicle has been damaged at 03:00 a.m. on Saturday on the main road between Diwaniya and Najaf cities, due to its exposure to an attack by an explosive charge blast on the side of the road,” the police source told IraqiNews.com news agency. It added that another explosive charge blew up in al-Kheil area at the center of Diwaniya city late Friday night, but losses are also unknown. Eyewitnesses told IraqiNews.com news agency that they heard police and ambulance sirens wailing throughout the city amid broad and low flights by U.S. helicopters for many hours early in the day. Meanwhile, a statement from the Commander of the U.S. Armed Forces in west Iraq’s Babel Province on Friday said that “residents of areas close to the American bases in Babel, Diwaniya and Wassit Provinces, have noticed an escalation in the U.S. forces activity in the areas close to those bases. “The motive of the said activity is to protect the bases and local Iraqi citizens from militias, supported by Iran that launched several attacks against the Iraqi infrastructure and exposed citizens lives for danger,” he said, adding that the measures were taken according to the Strategic Treaty, signed between Iraq and the United States. Diwaniya city, the center of the province carrying the same name, is 180 km to the south of Baghdad. SKH (TR)/SR