Baghdad Blast Kills 3 U.S. Troops

(CBS/AP)  Three U.S. soldiers were killed and nine others wounded in a roadside bombing in southern Baghdad on Thursday, according to the U.S. military.

Army Maj. David Shoupe said the soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded at about 10:38 a.m. while American troops were patrolling near a popular outdoor market in the southern district of Dora.

He said four civilians were also killed in the blast. Iraqi police and hospital officials put the civilian toll at 12 killed and 25 wounded.

Shoupe said initial reports that the attack was caused by a suicide bomber could not be confirmed.

Earlier Thursday, another suicide bomber killed seven U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitaries as they waited in a line to receive salaries at an Iraqi military base in the northern city of Kirkuk.

Police Maj. Salam Zankana said the victims in the Kirkuk attack were members of the local paramilitary Awakening Council - Sunnis who turned against the insurgents and help provide security. Eight others were wounded, he said.

Awakening Council members, also known as Sons of Iraq, have been frequently targeted by al Qaeda and other Sunni groups still fighting U.S. troops and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Sami Ghayashi, 37, who was among the injured, said the local council members had been waiting three months to receive their salaries.

"While we were waiting at gate talking to one another a big explosion took place," he said from his hospital bed. "I saw several colleagues dead, among them my cousin. I have no idea how this suicide bomber got among us."

Also Thursday, a bomb exploded inside a police station in western Baghdad, killing three policemen and wounding 19 others, an Iraqi police official said. The bomb was hidden inside a trash can and carried into the station, he added.

The official also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Thursday's attacks came a day after a car bomb exploded near a group of restaurants in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, killing 41 people and injuring more than 70.

Attacks in civilian areas appear to be carried out by extremists seeking to rekindle sectarian warfare. Despite a dramatic drop in violence in Iraq, attacks still occur, although with less frequency. Bursts of attacks tend to be followed by periods of calm, only to have the violence spring up again.

The Wednesday attack in the Baghdad neighborhood of Shula was the first major car-bombing in the capital since May 6, when 15 people were killed at a produce market in south Baghdad.

The Shula blast was the deadliest in the city since twin car blasts killed 51 people in another Shiite neighborhood, Sadr City, on April 29.

The failure to stop the bombings adds pressure on the Iraqi government to demonstrate that it can meet security ahead of a June 30 deadline for the U.S. to remove all combat forces from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

A day after the Shula bombing, dozens were still being treated at an area hospital for shrapnel wounds and burns. The blast blew out the front of a building housing shops and restaurants.

Coffins draped with flags were carried through the streets near the bombing as funerals began for the dead.

U.S. troops are due to leave Iraqi cities under terms of the U.S.-Iraq security agreement which took effect Jan. 1. President Barack Obama plans to remove combat troops from the country by September 2010 with all U.S. forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

Under the agreement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could ask the U.S. to delay the cities pullout. However, the issue is politically sensitive in a country worn out by six years of war, and the government has insisted there will be no delay in the withdrawal schedule.

[ayatoldya]

Why isn't Cheney, Bush and Rove on trial yet for all their lies and deceptions for personal gains that brought us into the Iraqi war? Why hasn't there been an inquiry as to why all the house and senate turned to puppets to allow this catastrophe to occur.

Many many crimes were committed by the very people the US public elected and trusted. Why isn't anything being done to bring these criminals to justice?

[gouliyare]

this is not good to hear to sensible people or kind humanity.. Iraq is one of the countries these days that spreads civil wars and killing civilians and even American soldiers.. but that people are really the sentenced of Sadam because it was failt to Bush and American..
Sadam was dictator althouth he had but the Iraq was stable....

[U-R-So-Wrong]

It's what you KNOW after you know-it-all that counts.

[johnpatrick1]

More friggin waste brought on by the bush fascist arrogance and stupidity..time to put some of those bozos up against the wall for the damage they have done to our Nation and to Iraq.

[noloyalisti]

Especially now that 95% of us KNOW this whole escapade was based on lies and was for controlling middle east oil supplies for Exxon and Chevron.

[sjc_1]

We need to get out of Iraq and into Afghanistan where our troops are in a shooting gallery. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are the bad guys and they are in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they have been for years. Bush abandoning Afghanistan in favor of lying about and invading Iraq will go down as one of the biggest mistakes ever made.

[enriquecaliente]

Mark this, as soon as we pull out, Iraq will fall into civil war. And it will be our fault. We as a nation, were fed lies. There were no connections to Bin Laden or al Qaeda. There were no WMDs.

Fact: Saddam's regime was intensely secular and wary of Islamic revolutionary movements. Moreover, Baghdad was unlikely to provide assistance to a group it could not control.

We have destabilized an entire region and lost valuable lives for nothing other then a misplaced ideology.

[mcintoshlou]

I think python meant if the United States followed the rule of law. Because we know that the Bush killers locked up people with no charges. They targeted their enemies, even American citizens and repeatedly broke US and international laws and treaties. That is what python meant.
Posted by noloyalisti

THANK YOU, AT MY AGE AND AFTER MANY WAR'S

THE NOBILITY OF MY SPIRIT LEADS ME TO CONCLUDE THAT ALL IS WELL,

I DO HOWEVER HAVE TROUBLE TYPING.

[mcintoshlou]

WHEN DID BUSH/CHENEY KEEP US SAFE???

WE ARE NOT CHILDREN, DO WE NEED DADDY BUSH/CHENEY

TO SAVE US , WHAT A REPUBLI'''CON'' CROCK,


BUSH/CHENEY 'ALLOWED'' THE ATTACKS OF 9/11 WITH

THEIR ARROGANT STUPIDITY

[noloyalisti]

I think python meant if the United States followed the rule of law. Because we know that the Bush killers locked up people with no charges. They targeted their enemies, even American citizens and repeatedly broke US and international laws and treaties. That is what python meant.