BAGHDAD, Dec 5: A bomb exploded in the middle of a busy Baghdad road on Friday, killing one American soldier and at least four Iraqis as a military convoy and a packed minibus passed in opposite directions, police and witnesses said.

The attack came ahead of a visit to Iraq by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the invasion but now under fire over the chaos that has ensued. He is expected to arrive on Saturday.

Police said 16 Iraqis were also wounded in the Baghdad blast, one of two bombings on US convoys in the capital, as people headed to mosques for Friday prayers. There were no casualties in the other attack.

In the fatal attack, the US military said in a statement that the device exploded between the first and second vehicles of the three-vehicle convoy, killing one soldier.

The minibus was badly damaged in the blast, with all its windows blown out. Pools of blood stained the floor of the wreckage. The blast also blew out shop windows around the area and left a large crater in the street.

Iraqi police Captain Sami Hadi, who was at the scene, said the blast was caused by a mine planted near a busy market and a mosque in an area of the city known as new Baghdad.

“The mine was exploded by remote control,” Mr Hadi said. “These are terrorists, they don’t care if there are Iraqis around.”

The attack raised to 190 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.

The latest attacks come a day after the United States urged Nato to consider a more robust role in Iraq.

ANGER:The attack left many Iraqis angry. At a hospital close to the scene of the blast, six old women dressed in black, all relatives of one of the victims, wailed on the ground.

Saad Yassin, a shop owner whose friend was killed in the explosion, said: “Where are the police? How can people plant mines like this?

“Neither the police, the (US-appointed) Governing Council or the Americans are running this country. This country is lost,” he said.

Another roadside bomb hit a separate US convoy in Baghdad early on Friday, damaging a humvee but causing no casualties. North of the city, an armoured vehicle caught fire, although there were conflicting reports over the cause.

Some witnesses said it might have been due to an attack by guerillas. There were no reports of casualties and the US military said it had no information.

RALLY AGAINST TERRORISM: About 1,000 Iraqis, mostly Shias, rallied in central Baghdad to condemn terrorism against Iraqis and US “liberation” forces on Friday after four Iraqis and a US soldier died in a bomb attack elsewhere in the capital.

Dozens of children aged between five and 10 marched at the front of the protest, with flowers in their hands, under white banners proclaiming in red letters: “Children — innocent victims of terrorism,” and: “Terrorism blocks any future for children”.

Organizer Sabih Hassan, head of a child protection association set up since the US-led invasion, said they had all “become orphans because of terrorism”.

Sabih Hassan said the march, the second here in a week, was against “all operations, including those targeting Americans”.

“Our children have a vital need for peace and security.”

The “Iraqi democratic trend”, set up after the war by tribes in Karbala and Babel, in central Iraq, organized the demonstration, said general secretary Aziz al Yassiri.

Sheikh Abdul Jalil Cherhani, 55, a leading member of the group, said: “We are against those who kill Iraqis, those who fight the Americans who liberated the country.”

Abed Salman Ali, 43, a former second-hand clothes dealer, said he had joined the demonstration to protest the insecurity that has forced many street vendors like him out of business.

“It doesn’t matter who the target is. This violence is blocking the reconstruction of our country,” he complained.

Police escorted the demonstrators as they marched down Saadoun Street, the capital’s main commercial thoroughfare.—AFP