Gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying employees of a US-funded Iraqi television station killing three and wounding eight today. A US soldier was also killed as militants continued their campaign against Western occupation.
Diyala Television said earlier reports that a bomb had also been used in the attack were incorrect.
The station said the employees of were being driven to work in the minibus east of the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad when guerrillas pulled up in a car and opened fire.
The run-up to Saturday's one-year anniversary of the start of the US-led war in Iraq has seen a surge in deadly attacks on foreigners in Iraq as well as on Iraqis seen as cooperating with the occupation.
Also today, a US soldier was killed and seven were wounded in a mortar attack at a logistics base north of Baghdad.
The Islamic militant group that claimed responsibility for last week's Madrid train bombings has warned that its next targets could be Britain, Japan, Italy, or Australia.
The Al-Quds al-Arabinewspaper website said it received a statement from "The Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri (al-Qaida)" in which the group reiterated its responsibility for the March 11th attacks.
The group also said it was calling a truce to give the newly elected Spanish government time to carry out its pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq, according to the statement.
"Our brigades are getting ready now for the coming strike," the statement said. "Whose turn will it be next? Is it Japan, America, Italy, Britain, Saudi Arabia or Australia?" The statement warned that "the brigades of death are at your doors," adding that they would strike "with an iron hand at the right time and place".
It tells American voters to vote for the re-election campaign of US President George W Bush.
"We know that a heavyweight operation would destroy your government, and this is what we don't want. We are not going to find a bigger idiot than you [Bush]."
On the evening of the Madrid bombings, Al-Quds al-Arabireleased a copy of an e-mail from Abu Hafs al-Masri in which they made the first claim of responsibility.
But Moroccan authorities have said the emerging evidence in the Madrid attacks points toward Ansar al-Islam, a guerrilla group blamed for terrorist strikes in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Morocco.
Other groups believed to be involved in the bombings are Salafia Jihadia and Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.
AP