BAGHDAD, July 2: Two US marines died in Iraq, the US military said on Friday, reporting that one was killed in action and the other died from wounds received the previous day near the restive city of Fallujah.
"A marine assigned to First Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action today (Friday) in the al-Anbar province while conducting security and stability operations," the military said in a statement.
The second marine died of injuries sustained in action the previous day in the same province, home to the rebel Sunni bastion of Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad.
HOTELS ATTACKED: Rockets on Friday morning hit two central Baghdad hotels used by foreigners and Iraqi officials and guards outside one of them said, at least three people were wounded or killed.
Outside the Baghdad Hotel, guards refused to let journalists approach, saying that there were at least three casualties. The Ishtar Sheraton Hotel was also hit, but the staff said nobody in the hotel had been wounded.
An empty bus was in flames outside a mosque opposite the Sheraton, sending a column of black smoke into the sky. The bus was in flames in Firdaws Square, where a statue of Saddam Hussein was symbolically toppled live on television when US troops took the city last April.
Nearby, police found a pickup truck flipped over on its side with 17 rocket launchers and a crude firing mechanism inside. Police said they believed three rockets had been fired from the truck and the force of launching them had flipped it over.
Trial a farce: Meanwhile, defence lawyers for Saddam Hussein challenged the legitimacy of Iraq's judicial system on Friday and termed the first court appearance of the ousted president a farce in an illegal court.
The judicial system, they said, was preventing them from going to Baghdad. Jordanian lawyers Mohammed Rashdan and Ziad Khassawneh told AFP that the televised court appearance in Baghdad of the former dictator was shameful. -AFP / Reuters
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