Blasts kill 2 U.S. soldiers in Iraq
Two Iraqi children also victims in one of the attacks
 |
U.S. Army Spec. Tyron Bohannon talks to an Iraqi man in Tikrit on Sunday.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Karbala buries its dead as coalition forces regroup.
One U.S. soldier, two Iraqi children killed in Baghdad blast.
Operation Iron Grip is the latest U.S. effort to crack down on Iraqi insurgents.
|
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Roadside bombs killed two American soldiers in attacks Sunday in Iraq, U.S. military officials said.
Eight other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attacks, military spokesmen in Baghdad said.
Northeast of Fallujah, an improvised roadside bomb killed a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division about 1 p.m. Sunday. Three other soldiers traveling in the convoy were wounded and taken to an Army hospital for treatment, military officials said. Fallujah has been a hotbed of resistance to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
In an earlier attack Sunday, another U.S. soldier and two Iraqi children died when an improvised explosive device detonated along a crowded roadside in Baghdad, according to the military.
"This shows how indiscriminate and careless these former regime loyalists are," said Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, a U.S. military spokesman. "They don't care who they kill as long as they make a splash."
Five American soldiers were wounded in the Baghdad attack, which occurred about 10:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. ET) in the Karadah district. The soldiers were in a vehicle, the military said.
The device was made from a series of artillery shells "daisy-chained" together and placed amid a crowd of Iraqis, military officials said.
Sunday's blast came a day after three strikes by insurgents in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala.
First Bulgarian, Thai troops die
Saturday's suicide attacks killed six coalition soldiers -- including four Bulgarians and two Thais -- along with seven Iraqi police officers, five Iraqi civilians and the drivers of the four car bombs that were used, said the Polish general who commands troops in that area.
The car bombs included between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds of explosives and artillery shells each, and "foreign fighters" may have been involved, said Gen. Marek Ojrzanowski. The attackers also used machine guns and mortars, a Polish military spokesman said.
The Bulgarian and Thai troops, the first from those countries to be killed in the Iraqi war, were part of a Polish-led multinational coalition force patrolling south-central Iraq. Thailand has a noncombatant force in Iraq.
At least 37 troops, including five U.S. soldiers, were hurt in the attacks that targeted a police station, city hall and Karbala University, where the Bulgarians and Thais had been living in barracks, coalition authorities said. More than 100 civilians were injured in the closely coordinated strikes, the authorities said. (Full story)
