Bulgarian killed in convoy attack
KARBALA, Iraq (CNN) -- A Bulgarian soldier has been shot dead by suspected insurgents who ambushed his convoy in the Iraqi holy Shiite city of Karbala, coalition forces said.
The soldier, a sergeant, was shot in the head, Maj. Slawomir Walenczykowski, of the central southern multinational division at Camp Babylon, said on Friday.
The soldier was transported to the military hospital at Camp Lima and then to Baghdad. He died while receiving medical treatment, according to a multinational division press release.
He is the sixth Bulgarian to have been killed since the war began.
More troops were dispatched to the area and the area around the city hall was reinforced.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, U.S. Army spokesman, said the patrol was attacked about noon by seven or eight men who appeared to have been fighters from the Mehdi Army, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.
He said a vehicle was disabled during the attack.
Later on Friday, al-Sadr delivered another fiery message in a sermon, threatening suicide attacks if U.S. forces conducted military actions in Karbala and Najaf.
Al-Sadr, in his sermon delivered in Najaf, condemned and denied involvement in the attacks on police stations and a training center in and around Basra and on the old general security building in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
He called these actions terrorist attacks.
Al-Sadr also sent his condolences to the Hamas movement for the death of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas leader in Gaza assassinated Saturday by Israel.
The U.S. military is continuing to mass troops around Najaf as ongoing talks with al-Sadr's forces attempt to defuse the crisis there, where the Mehdi Army has established control.
Al-Sadr is wanted by Iraqi authorities in connection with the killing of a rival cleric, and coalition forces have threatened to arrest or kill him.
Al Hayat, an Arabic-language newspaper in London, reported Friday that Najaf-area residents were concerned about possible violence between the Mehdi Army and U.S. forces.
The report said tribal leaders have called on members of the Mehdi Army to drop their weapons and have asked "all armed men in Najaf to protect the holiness of the city in the name of Islam."
They urged "leaving the authorities and law enforcement experts take charge of the city's affairs to avoid a bloodbath," the report said.
