Resistance actions in Iraq
• Various U.S. soldiers wounded in attack close to Kirkuk

KIRKUK.—An undetermined number of U.S. soldiers were wounded on Wednesday when two incendiary devices exploded as their convoy passed by, close to the oil city of Kirkuk, 255 kilometers north of Baghdad, AFP cabled.

The attack came at 17:00 hours in Humeira, 20 kilometers south of Kirkuk, and AFP informed that it had been unable to contact any U.S. military spokesperson.

The two devices had been placed at the roadside, five meters apart, and exploded within seconds of each other, while a Humvee vehicle was badly damaged.

Another dispatch from ANSA noted that at least 17 persons died and another 20 were injured in a car bomb explosion in the capital while the U.S. occupation forces were initiating a repressive operation in the neighboring city of Samarra.

EFE reports from Washington that CIA agents handling the interrogation of Saddam Hussein are using various forms of pressure to extract confessions from the former Iraqi president, while calls not to use torture are being heard.

The capture of the overthrown president has led to a debate in the United States as to what is acceptable psychological and physical pressure in order to obtain information and what is torture, a practice in contravention of international human rights agreements.

In an interview with a Colombian radio station from Baghdad this Wednesday, General Richard Sánchez, head of the U.S. forces in Iraq, denied that Hussein had been drugged.

Republican Senator John McCain, a member of the Armed Services Committee, warned that it would be counterproductive to fall into the temptation of going over the top with Hussein to obtain information on the resistance or on the alleged weapons of mass destruction.

According to the Geneva Convention, the only information that a prisoner of war is obliged to give his captors is his name, rank and date of birth.