Two U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq
Bombs killed a U.S. soldier and seven Iraqis on Monday as politicians haggled over key posts in the new Cabinet, officials said. Another American died the day before in northern Iraq, according to a U.S. statement.
Monday's worst attack occurred when a bomb exploded in a car parked near an Iraqi court in central Baghdad, killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding 10, said police Lt. Col. Falah Mohamadawi.
In eastern Baghdad, a car bomb exploded during morning rush hour near a police patrol on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding 12 Iraqis: five policemen and seven civilians, said police Lt. Ahmed Qassim.
Southeast of the capital, a U.S. military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb at about 11:10 a.m., damaging one vehicle and killing a U.S. army soldier riding in it, the military said.
On Sunday, another American soldier was killed and one wounded near Tal Afar while U.S. troops were helping Iraqi forces attack a building where insurgents were firing at civilians and soldiers, the U.S. command said.
The two American fatalities raised to at least 2,421 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In other developments:
Tal Afar, where one American soldier was killed and another wounded Sunday, is 260 miles northwest of Baghdad and about 95 miles east of the Syrian border. President Bush had cited Tal Afar as a success story in U.S. and Iraqi efforts to suppress the insurgency.
New details also emerged about a bomb-making factory hidden in a religious school near a major Sunni Muslim shrine in Baghdad.
On Sunday, the U.S. military reported that one suspected insurgent was killed and one wounded that day when their bomb-making factory exploded in the basement of one of Baghdad's two more important Sunni shrines.
On Monday, the U.S. command and Iraqi forces said an investigation had found that one insurgent died and two were wounded in the basement of the partially built al-Qadiriya religious school located next to the shrine when the roadside bombs they were making exploded.
Years ago, Saddam Hussein's government began building the school near the tomb of Abdul-Qadir al-Quilani and is visited by thousands of Sunni Muslims from around the region, but the school was left unfinished after the U.S.-led invasion.
Weapons have been found hidden in other mosques in Baghdad since insurgents began fighting U.S.-led forces after the fall of Saddam, but U.S. and Iraqi forces rarely risk offending Iraq's many religious Muslims by searching such holy sites.
The body of Wali, the chemical expert who was killed, was recovered from the scene by civilians and later identified at a morgue, the officials said. The identity of an Iraqi driver who was killed in the attack was never determined.
Iraq's government described him as the top official in charge of training fighters; planning suicide attacks, kidnappings, ambushes; and manufacturing explosives for Ansar al-Islam, a mostly Kurdish insurgent group. In addition to toxins and poisons, Wali also was an expert in the use of artillery, tanks and anti-aircraft weapons, the U.S. command said.
Wali, an Iraqi Kurd whose full name was believed to be Abbas bin Farnas bin Qafqas, had lived in Afghanistan in 1986. He received training and taught military tactics for more than a decade and also was a member of the Islamic Unity Movement of Kurdistan, which merged with another group to form Ansar al-Islam.
In 1998 to 2001, Wali lived in northern Iraq and instructed Ansar al-Islam members in terrorist tactics, explosives and weapons handling, the U.S. military said.
Wali was imprisoned in Iraq for about three months in 2001 after being arrested while returning from a visit to Afghanistan with a false passport, the U.S. command said.