A sniper killed a U.S. soldier on patrol in Baghdad with a single shot, the military said Tuesday, while Iraqi officials in nearby towns were targeted by drive-by shootings likely designed to intimidate them against cooperating with Americans. The attacks came as U.S. military officials announced that American troops had detained 371 people in three days of sweeps in Baghdad and northern Iraq meant to "isolate and defeat remaining pockets of resistance that are seeking to delay the transition to a peaceful and stable Iraq." During the attack on the U.S. soldier Monday night, the sniper escaped as the soldier collapsed on the ground. He was hustled into a military vehicle and evacuated to a first aid station, but died shortly afterward, said Maj. Sean Gibson, a U.S. military spokesman. Gibson said the soldier was shot in the chest, even though he was protected by body armor. The other troops on the patrol did not see the gunman, and it was not clear if they returned fire, Gibson said. On Sunday, insurgents ambushed two U.S. military convoys north of Baghdad, wounding 10 soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqi civilians traveling on a bus that was passing one of the convoys. About 50 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since major combat operations were declared over on May 1, when President Bush declared major combat over.. **Occupation Forces Demolish Iraqi Houses*** Following the Zionist example, U.S. occupation forces start with demolishing Iraqi houses in Ramadi city, west of Iraqi capital Baghdad, reported Al-Menar satellite channel. U.S. tanks moved into the area of Ramadi town and demolished at least 3 houses of Iraqi civilians to hit suspected resistance fighters and prevent rocket attacks on nearby occupation targets. **US Hunt Suspected Ambushers*** Led by informants, U.S. soldiers swept into homes of Iraqis suspected in ambushes on Americans, rousing sleeping families and digging up backyards - lightning raids Monday to find heavy weapons and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime. At least 59 Iraqis were detained, most taken away blindfolded and handcuffed, in the sweep in Baghdad and several towns, but the U.S. military announced no major weapons discoveries. Despite the U.S. campaign to put down resistance across Iraq's Sunni heartland, attacks on occupation troops persisted. Insurgents ambushed two U.S. convoys, wounding 10 Americans, the military said. The two rocket-propelled grenade attacks reinforced the belief that Saddam loyalists were reorganizing. Residents of homes raided over the past two days warned that the U.S. operations were only fueling hostility and anti-American attacks. The latest ambushes came Sunday. In the first, the grenade fire set fire to a civilian bus that was passing a military convoy near the town of Mushahidah, about 15 miles north of Baghdad, seriously wounding two soldiers and lightly wounding six others. The second attack hit a U.S. convoy in Dujayl, a town 35 miles north of Baghdad, lightly wounding two soldiers, said Army spokesman Capt. John Morgan. Qusai Taha, 33, a grocery store owner from Dujayl, said he heard gunfire while in his store, ran outside and saw that the last vehicle in a 15-vehicle U.S. convoy had been hit. He said he saw two U.S. soldiers being taken out of the truck, apparently wounded. Later, Taha said, two Iraqis arrived on a motorbike and set the truck ablaze. The U.S. Central Command blamed the ambushes on hard-core loyalists of the ousted regime who "continue to put innocent civilians at risk." Last week, the military launched its biggest combat operation since the war, sending thousands of troops through central Iraqi towns. On Sunday, after banning Iraqis from having any weapons heavier than an assault rifle, the military began its latest sweep - Operation Desert Scorpion - to root out arms and militants. The operation spread to Baghdad on Monday: Troops from the Army's 1st Armored Division arrested 44 people, including three suspects in a June 1 grenade attack on U.S. soldiers guarding the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad's Athamiyah neighborhood. That attack injured two U.S. soldiers and sparked a firefight that killed two Iraqis. Monday morning, an informant rode with the raiders pointing out houses to the troops, who also used surveillance photos taken by special forces to pinpoint targets. Officers said they found anti-American documents (?) in the homes and seized 14,000 US dollars in both Iraqi and U.S. currency, in addition to an AK-47 assault rifle and 9mm pistol. Thirteen men detained during the day were taken to a palace north of Baghdad that once belonged to Saddam's son Odai. The prisoners knelt or sat on concrete blocks surrounded by concertina wire. All wore white blindfolds and some had duct tape over their mouths. During a raid Monday night, troops took 31 more Iraqis prisoner outside the Abu Hanifa mosque and at an outdoor cafe, where soldiers lined men who had been playing backgammon and drinking tea up against a fence, searched them and loaded them handcuffed onto trucks. Also seized were two truckloads of medical supplies, including IV solutions and glucose bags, that the Americans suspected were looted or were bound for the black market. In the Ramadi area, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, the raid began at 5:15 a.m., when families were still asleep outside their homes to escape the heat indoors. Within an hour, the troops were gone, taking four brothers from the Saleh home and two brothers from the nearby home of the Mejwal family. "There are no weapons of mass destruction here," said Omar Saleh, 40, the elder brother of the four detainees. "This is not liberation, nor democracy nor freedom." Clothes and sheets were scattered on the floor, drawers were opened and their contents were strewn, and a splintered wooden cupboard bore the imprint of a boot. But a framed picture of Saddam was left undisturbed on the wall. Minutes after the soldiers left, the Saleh house was crowded with neighbors who tried to comfort the weeping mother. "The resistance is going to increase," said Abdul Qader Fahd, 30, a teacher. "Dealing with civilians like this is terrorism." In Khaldiyah, 18 miles east of Ramadi, more than 100 military police and infantrymen in 30 Humvees and four Bradley fighting vehicles poured into the small town to raid six homes. Nine people were arrested. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A U.S. Army soldier keeps watch as infantry and military police raid an Iraqi house to search for weapons June 16, 2003 in the town of Khaldiya, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Photo by Chris Helgren/Reuters