Attacks Leave 6 U.S. Troops Dead
A roadside bomb exploded south of Baghdad late Tuesday, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding three others, the U.S. military said.
The attack occurred about 8 p.m. near Iskandariyah, some 25 miles south of the Iraqi capital, a military statement said.
Earlier Tuesday, three other U.S. soldiers were killed in a bombing near Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians also were killed in the ambush — including one who was shot in the stomach as he stood in his office nearby, hospital staff said.
In addition to the three American dead in the earlier attack, one U.S. soldier was injured, the U.S. military said. All were from the 82nd Airborne Division, the military said.
In other recent developments:
Apparently acknowledging the existence of Iraq's different ethnic groups as one component of the problem, Annan said the U.N. team "will ascertain the views of a broad spectrum of Iraqi society in the search for alternatives that might be developed to move forward to the formation of a provisional government."
In the attack on U.S. forces, Iraqi witnesses said a roadside bomb exploded next to a Humvee in the convoy in the tense region west of the capital. As reinforcements arrived, another bomb went off, hitting a second military vehicle, they said.
Khaldiyah and Fallujah are part of the "Sunni Triangle," the area in central Iraq where most of the anti-U.S. attacks by die-hard Saddam Hussein loyalists have occurred.
"I saw more than three soldiers in the Humvee on fire," said Emad Abd Salah, 30, who suffered injuries to his hands. He said he saw the soldier riding atop the Humvee fall to the ground.
"The vehicle was lifted from the ground from the explosion," he said at the Ramadi Hospital. U.S. troops fired randomly after the explosion, he said.
Abdul Hamid Marzouq, a nurse at the Ramadi Hospital where the casualties were brought, said two Iraqis were killed — Hadi Abd Shehab, the director of agriculture of Khaldiyah, and Hamd Nayef, a taxi driver.
Nayef, who was driving by at the time of the explosion, was injured in the head and face, Marzouq said, adding that three people were injured.
Marzouq said Shehab died of a gunshot wound to the stomach. Witnesses said he was shot while standing in his office close the blast scene, and died on way to the hospital. It was not clear who shot him.
Nameer Mohammed, who said he was standing about 500 yards away when the attack occurred, claimed American soldiers fired randomly after the blasts. This could not be independently confirmed.
Mohammed described seeing a U.S. military vehicle on fire after the first blast.
As more American forces came to the scene, another bomb went off, setting fire to a second vehicle, he said.
Mohammed said he carried several injured people to the hospital.
The last serious attack in Khaldiyah took place Saturday when a car bomb killed three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint and injured six in addition to several Iraqi civilians. Two other American soldiers were killed in Fallujah the same day.