A Soldiers Blog

BAGHDAD, Oct 19 (AFP) - One US contractor was killed and seven other people wounded, including an American soldier, in an attack on a US army compound in central Baghdad on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.

"We had mortar and RPG (rocket propelled grenade) fire that hit inside our compound this morning," the spokesman told AFP.

The US soldier and one of the six Iraqi civilians injured in the attack were in a serious but stable condition, he said.

The Iraqis nationals had all been working in the compound.

Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of the US oil services giant Halliburton, confirmed its employee was killed, bringing to 54 the number of deaths suffered by Halliburton and its subcontractors in Iraq.

"KBR regrets to confirm the death of one employee who was killed today as a result of injuries sustained during a mortar attack near Baghdad," it said in a statement.

Mortars also slammed into an Iraqi National Guard base north of the capital, killing four guardsmen and injuring 82 others, an interior ministry spokesman said.

US contractor killed in Baghdad mortar attack