BAGHDAD, July 27 (AFP) - An Iraqi garbage collector was killed and 14 US soldiers and a civilian were wounded Tuesday in a mortar attack on a residential neighbourhood in central Baghdad, the US military said.
"One civilian was killed and one civilian was injured and 14 multinational force soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on a residential building in central Baghdad at around 6:45 am (0245 GMT)," a spokesman said.
Another military spokesman confirmed the 14 wounded soldiers were American.
South of Baghdad, Dr Kassem el-Abadi, 40, deputy director of Mahmudiyah hospital, was shot dead late Monday by unknown assailants in a car as he left work for home, the health ministry said.
The dead garbage collector was covered with a light green cloth in the courtyard of a housing complex next to the Iranian embassy, as US soldiers and Iraqi police arrived on the scene, an AFP correspondent said.
"It was a mortar attack in which a garbage cleaner was killed and another man wounded," said a policeman, declining to give his name.
The man was killed in the Karkh district on the west bank of the Tigris River, not far from the fortified Green Zone housing the interim Iraqi government and the US embassy that has been the target of repeated insurgent attacks.
US helicopters hovered over the area shortly after the attack, in which two or three explosions of mortar rounds were heard.
North of Baghdad, a US civilian contractor was wounded in a missile attack on a US base near Balad on Monday, the US military said Tuesday adding that it has detained six suspects in connection with the incident.
Further north near Duluiyah, US troops and Iraqi National Guard discovered on Monday night a car laden with mortars and a propane gas tank, said the military adding that the vehicle was detonated on Tuesday morning.
In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, rebels torched a trailer carrying concrete barriers after it broke down west of the restive city, said police chief General Walid Abdul Salam.
In the restive Anbar province, US marines said they seized Monday a truck laden with more than 200 mortar rounds and arrested two people.