BAGHDAD: Roadside bombs killed four US soldiers Tuesday in separate incidents in Iraq, the military said, in one of the most deadly days for American troops in weeks.
In the first incident, a roadside bomb struck a patrol in southern Baghdad around 10:30 a.m., killing one American soldier assigned to Multi-National Corps Iraq, the military said in a statement.
Then, an improvised explosive device targeting a patrol in northern Iraq at approximately 11:40 a.m. killed three soldiers also with the Multi-National Corps Iraq, the military said.
The death raises to at least 4,343 the number of members of the US military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.
There were also Iraqi casualties on Tuesday. A roadside bomb killed Lt. Col. Zaid Hussein Khalaf, the head of an anti-terrorism police unit, and four of his bodyguards in a northern Iraqi town that is home to a large Shiite population.
The attack in the town of Armili targeted a convoy carrying Khalaf, who leads the local police force’s anti-terrorism section, said Brig. Sarhat Qader of the police in Kirkuk, a city farther north.
Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol near the town of Daqouq, killing two policemen and wounding three others, Kirkuk police said.
Also in Baghdad, a Health Ministry official escaped an assassination attempt Tuesday when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in the eastern part of the capital, but one ministry employee died in the blast, Iraqi police and health officials said.
Eight bystanders and four people in the convoy were also wounded in the attack, which appeared directed at Dr. Ali Bustan Al-Fartosi, who is in charge of eastern Baghdad’s medical facilities. The doctor escaped unharmed, the officials said.
North of the capital, in the city of Tikrit, a roadside bomb targeting the convoy of the deputy provincial governor injured one of his bodyguards. The deputy governor was unharmed, police said.
