Two U.S. soldiers are dead following a guerrilla ambush on their convoy in northern Iraq. Elsewhere, an Iraqi driver was killed and at least one relief worker was wounded in a separate attack on an aid convoy.
Unknown attackers firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a U.S. military convoy at Tall Afur, a town just west of Mosul in the predominantly Kurdish north of the country.
Three of the soldiers, all members of 101st Airborne Division, were wounded in the attack, and two later died.
The military is reporting no casualties among the attackers.
The incident is the latest in a series of guerrilla-style small-arms and grenade attacks that have killed 37 U.S. troops since major combat ended on May 1.
In a separate attack, a convoy carrying aid workers from the International Organization for Migration was ambushed.
A spokesperson for the group says an Iraqi driver died in the attack, while an Australian aid worker was wounded.
The ambush occurred as the convoy, traveling in tandem with vehicles from the World Health Organization, drove down a road near the historic city of Hilla, 100 kilometers south of Baghdad.
Further south, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, several thousand protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against alleged U.S. harassment of a leading Shiite cleric. For two hours Saturday, American troops cordoned off the house of Muktada al-Sadr, one of Iraq's three main Shiite leaders.
One account of the protest says local religious leaders attempted to calm the demonstrators during an angry face-off with U.S. Marines.
Erroneous reports that coalition forces had arrested Mr. al-Sadr sparked a smaller protest Saturday in Baghdad.