A US soldier was killed and another wounded at a gas station in Baghdad yesterday. Elsewhere in the city, two Iraqi protesters were killed by US troops, while in Britain, controversy continued over why the United States and Britain sent fighters into Iraq in the first place.

　　British Home Secretary David Blunkett, speaking in London yesterday, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to go to war rested on intelligence information on Saddam Hussein's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that was withheld from most of his ministers.

　　Blunkett, who has access to top-level security service information, was responding to claims by a former British Cabinet minister that intelligence on Iraqi weapons had shown Saddam wasn't a serious threat. A parliamentary probe into Britain's decision to wage war in Iraq is the biggest controversy in Blair's six years in power. Questions also have been raised in the United States over whether US intelligence about Iraqi weapons was distorted to make the case for war.

　　In Baghdad yesterday, gunmen approached a squad of troops at a gas station on foot and shot the soldiers from close range, killing one and wounding another, before fleeing to a waiting getaway car, said US Captain David Gercken, a spokesman for the Army's 1st Armored Division.

　　Hours earlier, US troops opened fire on former members of Saddam's military forces demonstrating for back pay outside the main gate of a former presidential compound that now serves as US headquarters in Iraq. Two protesters were killed, according to the military.

　　US military spokesman Captain John Morgan said trouble started when the demonstrators threw stones at a convoy of military police vehicles moving toward the arched gateway of what is now the headquarters of the US-led administration in Iraq. A soldier fired in response, Morgan said.

　　Demonstrations outside the Republican Palace have been frequent since coalition forces captured the Iraqi capital in April, usually over the issue of unpaid government or military wages.

　　The US military was criticized on Tuesday for previous occasions when it has resorted to force against demonstrations. Human Rights Watch said US soldiers used excessive force when they shot and killed 20 protesters and wounded almost 90 others in the restive city of Fallujah.

　　Morgan, the US military spokesman, said the Army would "take appropriate measures" based on the results of its own Fallujah investigation, which he said was under way.

　　US military forces have been on the hunt this week for suspected Saddam loyalists and Iraqis hiding outlawed weapons. Troops pulled Baghdad residents from their beds before dawn yesterday in a house-to-house search.

　　A new Central Criminal Court has, among other duties, the task of speeding up trials of those who have kept fighting US troops.