An Army truck hit an explosive device west of Baghdad injuring six US soldiers early yesterday, and ambushers in the capital wounded three other American soldiers in separate incidents. The attacks also left two Iraqis dead and several wounded - including a 6-year-old boy, US military officials and witnesses said.

　　An explosion during a demonstration in Baqouba, 55 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, killed one person and injured several others. The demonstrators were protesting the US Army's alleged detention of the city's top Shiite cleric.

　　The violence comes a day after President Bush vowed that anti-US attacks would not keep the United States from fulfilling its mission in Iraq.

　　In Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of Baghdad, a two-Humvee convoy struck an explosive, wounding six soldiers, said Sergeant Patrick Compton, a US military spokesman in Baghdad.

　　Later yesterday morning, an ambusher fired a grenade at a US Army convoy in downtown Baghdad, wounding two soldiers; troops who returned fire killed an Iraqi bystander and injured others, witnesses said.

　　As the convoy moved along Baghdad's Haifa Street, a man fired a rocket-propelled grenade while standing in a car's sunroof; the grenade exploded beneath an Army Humvee, said Saddam Juwad, 22, a bystander. Most of the soldiers jumped from the Humvee before the explosion, Juwad said. One soldier who appeared to be injured was evacuated, Juwad and other witnesses said.

　　As the attackers sped away, US soldiers began firing wildly, Juwad and other witnesses said, killing the driver of another car.

　　In a separate ambush, a sniper fired on a patrol in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Kadamiyah, wounding a soldier from the Army's 1st Armored Division, Compton said. Soldiers fired back, killing the attacker and wounding a 6-year-old boy who was with the man.

　　The soldier and the boy were in stable condition in a military hospital.

　　In Baqouba, witnesses said a plastic bag filled with explosives blew up in the middle of a crowd of a few hundred Iraqi demonstrators, who were quietly protesting the US Army's detention of Ali Abdul Kareem al-Madani, the city's top Shiite cleric. Witnesses said one man was killed and five wounded.

　　But Captain Josh Felker of the US Army's 4th Infantry division said the explosion occurred when a grenade blew up in a man's hands, injuring three bystanders.

　　In another development, the Iraqi National Museum briefly opened its doors to the press. Looting at the museum provoked an international outcry after Baghdad fell on April 9, but US occupation authorities say many of the museum's most important items - including the world-famous treasures of Nimrud - have been accounted for. Still, scores of items remain missing, said museum director Donny George.

　　The museum won't open to the public for about two years, George said.