BAGHDAD, June 08, SPA--A suicide truck bomber who concealed his explosives under tanned animal hides struck an Americanpatrol base Sunday in northern Iraq, killing one soldierand wounding 20 other people, U.S. and Iraqi officialssaid, according to AP. Eighteen of the wounded were American soldiers and twowere Iraqi contractors working at the base in Tamimprovince, according to a brief statement from the military. Tamim has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen,with the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as its capital. ThreeAmerican soldiers were killed last Wednesday by gunfire inTamim. Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir, a senior officer in the Kirkukpolice department, said the bomber targeted a U.S. patrolbase in a mostly Sunni Arab residential area in Rashad,about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Kirkuk. The suicide attacker rammed his vehicle into blast wallsoutside the gates of the small U.S. base, located in aresidential neighborhood of Sunni Arabs, Qadir said. Headded that the explosives were concealed under tannedanimal hides. Earlier, the U.S. military issued a statement saying anAmerican soldier died late Saturday when his vehicle wasstruck by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. At least 4,094 members of the U.S. military have died inthe Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to anAssociated Press count. In Baghdad, four police recruits were killed in a blast atthe National Police headquarters, authorities said. Another 22 people were wounded near the building's gatewhere recruits were gathering, they said. Police gaveconflicting reports about whether the attack used mortarsor a roadside bomb. A mortar shell landed just outside Baghdad's Green Zone onSunday, killing three civilians and wounding seven others,police said. The mortar was apparently targeting theDefense Ministry, which is inside the U.S.-guardeddiplomatic zone, but fell short, they said. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/563454