A brief statement released by the US Central Command said the soldier was evacuated to the 21st Combat Support Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The latest death brings to nine the number of American soldiers who have died around the country this week. Nearly two dozen others have been wounded.

The commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq said that in response to the recent attacks, he may soon send more troops into combat operations. Lt. Gen. David McKiernan said the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, which had been planning to return to the United States in June, was going to remain in Iraq until commanders decided they were no longer needed.

With the attacks against US soldiers mounting, he said there were no immediate plans to return the unit to its headquarters at Fort Stewart, Georgia. “Now that the 1st Armored Division has assumed the responsibility for the Baghdad area, I’m working with the V Corps commander on different options,” McKiernan said. The V Corps is an umbrella operation that coordinates American forces in Iraq.

“If we need to apply some of the combat power of the 3rd Infantry Division elsewhere in Iraq, we will certainly not hesitate to do that,” McKiernan said.

He said one area where more troops may be sent is Fallujah, 70 km (45 miles) west of Baghdad.

Two US soldiers were killed and nine wounded there Sunday night during a firefight at a US checkpoint in the town of 200,000 people.

McKiernan said that the attacks were orchestrated by Baath Party groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein.

“The war has not ended,” McKiernan said. “Decisive combat operations against military formations has ended, but these contacts we’re having right now are in a combat zone, and it is war, and they are members of (Saddam’s) regime that must be removed.”

McKiernan said the attacks were “being perpetrated by enemies whose future is gone...the rest of the population knows that they were thugs under his regime, and they know, and the Iraqi population knows, that they have no future in this country.”

On Wednesday, US troops pulled out of a police station that they had taken over in the town of Hit. US soldiers and Iraqi police had jointly held the building, which came under grenade and explosive attack Wednesday afternoon.

Protests broke out after US troops carried out house-to-house searches in Hit, 200 km (120 miles) west of Baghdad, looking for a man who attacked a US military vehicle on Monday on the edge of the town.

Two soldiers were lightly wounded in Wednesday’s protests, according to Capt. Paul Kurttner of the 3rd Armored Division.

Three protesters with bullet wounds were admitted to hospital before being released, according to Hit public hospital director Iyad Thabet. The army evacuated Wednesday evening “to avoid clashes with the population,” Kurttner said.

Up to 250 people gathered as rockets were launched at the police compound, the captain added. “They threw grenades at a couple of our soldiers and we were able to defend ourselves, firing shots to keep those people back...We left with minimum injuries and we left the scene,” Kurttner said.

Asked about a possible return to Hit, Kurttner said: “It isn’t my decision.”

Residents insisted that they did not want US troops to resume patrols. “We want US soldiers to leave. We will no longer accept their return to the town,” said Mufid Hadhal, surrounded by a group of 20 other angry residents.

In Baghdad hundreds of Shiites, many from the influential Hawza seminary, protested against the US occupation and what they said was a US-led crackdown on the school.