3 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq

Coalition Forces Also Free Seven Iraqi Kidnap Victims

(CBS/AP) 

Curbing militias and death squads is a key goal of the incoming Iraqi government, and officials plan to restructure police forces in the capital under the newly formed National Police force to achieve it.

All members of the new force will wear a newly designed uniform and drive similar patrol cars, a move aimed at making it easier to identify rogue elements and death squads.

The three U.S. soldiers died when roadside bombs hit two separate Army convoys southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command also announced that another U.S. soldier died two days ago from non-combat related wounds near the northern city of Mosul.

The four deaths raised to at least 2,429 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In Haqlaniyah, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, insurgents armed with guns and a mortar round attacked U.S. Marines from an abandoned hotel Thursday, the U.S. military said. Coalition forces responded with small arms fire, a shoulder-fired rocket and an air strike on the hotel. The fighting left a child with minor injuries, the military said, but no casualties were reported among the soldiers or insurgents.

On Wednesday, President Jalal Talabani urged Iraq's feuding factions to unite against surging crime and terrorism. Talabani said nearly 1,091 people were killed in Baghdad alone last month, and his office said the figure came from the Baghdad Central Morgue.

However, Dr. Riyadh Abdul Amer, the Ministry of Health official whose office maintains morgue records, said his staff misinterpreted the president's request and gave him figures for all deaths in the Baghdad area for the month of April including natural causes.

The Health Ministry said 952 people, most of them civilians, died nationwide last month in "terrorist" violence: 686 civilians, 190 insurgents, 54 policemen and 22 Iraqi soldiers.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said this week that al-Maliki will launch a new initiative to end violence, including a security crackdown in Baghdad and other cities. Consolidation of police forces in Baghdad appeared part of that plan.

Currently, Baghdad is filled with tens of thousands of police officers, soldiers and paramilitary troops whose identities and allegiances often are not known. That makes it difficult to identify gunmen who sometimes wear uniforms.

Iraq's Interior Ministry controls police forces, the Ministry of Defense is responsible for the army, and paramilitary forces that guard Iraqi infrastructure such as oil pipelines and electrical plants often are under the control of other ministries.

Iraq's army, which works closely with U.S. forces in Baghdad, would not be affected by the formation of the new National Police force.