Resistance fighters wounded eight US soldiers in three attacks on occupation forces in Iraq today, a day after President George W. Bush said there were enough troops in Iraq to deal with the guerrillas.
Two Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded as a result of the increasingly bold attacks on US forces.
A US military intelligence officer said there was "organised resistance" in the anti-US hotbed of Falluja, where residents believe a US airstrike damaged a mosque on Monday killing nine people.
The Americans say they had nothing to do with the blast. At least 23 US troops have died from hostile fire in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May 1st. US officials blame former intelligence officers and Iraqi army elements loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein.
The hit-and-run attacks, which typically involve grenades launched on US convoys, have grown more frequent in recent weeks, but Mr Bush said the roughly 150,000 troops in Iraq were adequately prepared.
"There are some who feel like conditions are such that they can attack us there," Mr Bush told reporters at the White House yesterday. "My answer is: Bring them on. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation...We're not going to get nervous."
Democrats in Washington criticised Mr Bush for issuing what they called an invitation to fire on US troops.
Hours after Mr Bush spoke, assailants in broad daylight in central Baghdad wounded at least one US soldier when they fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a US vehicle.
One Iraqi passer-by was killed and 11 others wounded, hospital sources said. That followed a predawn firefight in northwestern Baghdad in which an Iraqi man shot at a US patrol, wounding one soldier.
The soldiers returned fire, killing the gunman and wounding a six-year-old boy, the military said.
In the attack with the highest number of US casualties, six soldiers were wounded when an explosion hit their convoy of two Humvees in the town of Ramadi, some 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad.