Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    FALLUJAH, Iraq, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb on Friday struck a dismounted joint patrol of U.S. troops and Iraqi police in the city of Fallujah in Anbar province, killing one interpreter and wounding two Iraqi policemen, a provincial police source said.

    The bomb detonated in the morning when U.S. troops and Iraqi police were on foot patrol in the al-Azraggiya neighborhood in northern Fallujah, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    It was unclear whether any U.S. soldier was killed or wounded by the attack as the troops immediately cordoned off the scene, allowing a U.S. helicopter to evacuate the casualties, the source said.

    The U.S. military has not confirmed the incident yet.

    Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, has been relatively calm for more than a year since Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. insurgent groups turn up against al-Qaida network in Iraq, cooperating with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.

    Rifts emerged between predominant Sunni insurgent groups and the al-Qaida after the latter adopted a hardline and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.