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Roadside bombs kill six soldiers


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Iraqis stand outside of a Baghdad shop Saturday after a blast killed the store's owner and wounded two people.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A spate of roadside bombings this weekend has killed six U.S. soldiers, according to the U.S.-led coalition.

Most recently, a roadside bomb -- or improvised explosive device (IED) -- in Baghdad claimed the life of one 1st Infantry Division soldier Sunday morning, according to the Coalition Press Information Center. The bombing happened at 6:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. Saturday ET), CPIC said.

Saturday night, also in the Iraqi capital, three soldiers from the 1st Armored Division died when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in southeast Baghdad around 10:45 p.m. (2:45 p.m. ET), CPIC said.

Hours earlier, an IED in central Tikrit killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded five others, as they patrolled the hometown of Saddam Hussein in an armored Humvee around 5 a.m. (9 p.m. Friday ET), according to the U.S. military.

Also Saturday, a store owner was killed and two passers-by, including a little girl, were wounded when an explosion rocked a Muslim clothing store on a busy Baghdad street, Iraqi authorities and eyewitnesses said.

Hayder Abdul Kareen al-Qizwini, a Shiite, sold scarves, veils and traditional Muslim clothing at his shop on Inner Karada Street, eyewitnesses said. He was married and in his early 40s.

Neighbors said Qizwini was a brother-in-law of Iraqi Governing Council member Ibrahim al Jafari. Deputy Interior Minister Ibrahim Ahmed Kadhim confirmed the details of the attack but would not comment on Hayder's relation to Jafari.

Eyewitnesses said they saw a tall bearded man selling honey from shop to shop before the blast. He was last seen near Hayder's store where police believe he left a bag full of explosives by the door.

The blast came a day after an aide to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was shot and wounded on his way to Friday prayers in Najaf. (Full story)

Meanwhile Saturday, L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, said the coalition plans to at least double the 8,000 security people on the borders and initiate a system called PISCES "to positively ID everyone entering or leaving Iraq."

The plan would limit the ports of entry into Iraq to 20 to reduce the number of foreign terrorists entering Iraq, Bremer said in a statement.

The coalition will cut the number of entry ports on the Iran-Iraq border to three, he said. Visitors traveling by land who want to enter Iraq will need to present a passport, fill out an entry form, and be entered into an immigration monitoring system, Bremer said.

Border police will be able to check for wanted people from entry card data punched into the PISCES system.

The program intends to have the proper equipment, staffers, training and material by June 30, when sovereignty is handed over to Iraq.

Bremer believes the stiffer security won't burden travelers and that special procedures will be put in place to handle increased border traffic during religious holidays, he said.

The program will be started after the Iraq Interior Ministry and other officials are consulted, Bremer said.

Iraq is bordered by Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

CNN's Marga Ortigas contributed to this report


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