Two US troops killed, 8 charged in POW’s death

Two US soldiers were killed when their patrol was attacked near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and a US convoy came under fire in the flashpoint town of Falluja, the US Military and witnesses said on Sunday. The attack late on Saturday with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire near the oil city of Kirkuk, killed two 4th Infantry Division soldiers and wounding another. It brought to 103 the number of US soldiers killed in hostile fire in Iraq since Washington declared major combat operations over on May 1.

In Falluja, West of Baghdad, gunmen fired on a US Military convoy on Sunday morning, setting a truck carrying ammunition ablaze and sparking a series of explosions. The gunmen fired on US soldiers caught in the blast and American soldiers returned fire. The explosions threw shrapnel and plumes of black smoke into the air. A crowd of jubilant Iraqi men and boys gathered at the scene, shouting ‘‘Falluja has destroyed the Americans!’’ A US Military spokesman in Baghdad could not immediately confirm the incident.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia said on Sunday they would send troops to Iraq only on a request from the Iraqi people and after a consensus was reached among Muslim countries. ‘‘The opinion of the Iraqi people has not been shown to us, and until that time…We will not send any troops,’’ visiting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said at a press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Kasuri.