A roadside bomb killed three US Marines and wounded two others yesterday in the first fatal attack on American forces since the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, US officials said.

　　In one of his first acts since taking power, Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Saddam Hussein will be transferred to Iraqi legal custody and face charges before an Iraqi court this week. But he will remain in a US-run jail until his government has a suitably secure prison.

　　The attack on the Marines occurred at 10am in east Baghdad, the US command said in a statement.

　　Despite Monday's formal end to the occupation, about 160,000 soldiers - mostly Americans - remain in Iraq to help the new Iraqi government restore order.

　　Allawi promised an open proceeding when Saddam faces war crimes charges, including genocide. Eleven other "high-value detainees" also are expected to face justice, he told reporters during his first news conference since the US-led coalition handed over sovereignty to his government on Monday.

　　"I know I speak for my fellow countrymen when I say I look forward to the day former regime leaders face justice," he said.

　　Meanwhile, Iraqi militants shot dead an American soldier they had held hostage for three months, saying the killing was because of US policy in the Mideast nation, Al-Jazeera television said yesterday.

　　The Arab-language station reported that the slain soldier was Special Keith M. Maupin, but the US military could not confirm whether a man shown being shot in a murky videotape was Maupin. He was taken hostage after an April 9 attack outside Baghdad. The report did not say when Maupin, 20, was killed.

　　In a separate hostage drama, an Iraqi extremist group freed three Turkish captives yesterday, Turkey's foreign minister said. Al-Jazeera television reported that the group was releasing the hostages "for the sake of their Muslim brothers."

　　"Our citizens have been released," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told state television. "We've struggled a lot for their release."

　　Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing the three Turkish hostages, believed to have been contractors, kneeling in front of three members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, as one of the militants read a statement.

　　"For the sake of you, our brothers, and Muslims of the people of Turkey ... we will release these hostages and send them safely home," the statement said.

　　Monday's surprise transfer of sovereignty came two days early in an apparent attempt to foil expected attacks by anti-American insurgents.

　　There were no major attacks on Monday, but four US soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on their convoy in Tikrit, said Sharon Walker, a spokeswoman for the coalition.

　　Near midnight, four heavy explosions rang out in central Baghdad, close to the US-held Green Zone - a near daily occurrence in the capital. But the military said there were no injuries in the blasts, which were caused by mortar fire.

　　(The Associated Press)