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American soldiers killed in Iraq; five more charged with assault

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a checkpoint south of Baghdad and killed four American soldiers Monday, the military said. The U.S. command also announced five soldiers from an elite unit were charged with kicking and punching Iraqi detainees.

The suicide attack came as U.S. and Iraqi troops battled al-Qaida-led militants for a third day in Husaybah, a town on the Syrian border that the military describes as a major entry point for foreign fighters. One Marine has died there, the U.S. command said Monday.

Al-Qaida in Iraq warned the Iraqi government to halt the offensive in Husaybah within 24 hours or see "the earth ... shake beneath their feet."

"Let them know that the price will be very heavy," said an Internet statement purportedly issued by al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been blamed for some of Iraq's worst terror bombings. The warning's authenticity could not be confirmed.

The four soldiers who died in the suicide attack were assigned to the Army's Task Force Baghdad, the U.S. command said, offering no further details. Earlier Monday, the military said a U.S. soldier died Sunday in a roadside bombing near Tikrit.

The deaths brought to at least 2,051 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the Iraq war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 24 have died this month - most in roadside bombings.

The U.S. military said five soldiers from the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment were charged Saturday with assault, maltreatment and dereliction of duty during a Sept. 7 incident "in which three detainees were allegedly punched and kicked while awaiting movement to a detention facility." All five were reassigned to administrative duties, the statement said.

The Army said that the alleged incident occurred in Baghdad and that the detainees, all men, suffered bruises "caused by striking with a closed and open hand, kicking and hitting with an object described as a broomstick."

Allegations of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad gained international notoriety in 2004. Nine Army reservists were convicted in that scandal.

The announcement of fresh abuse charges came as President Bush defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terrorists and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.

In a statement Monday on the Husaybah fighting, the Marines said American and Iraqi troops were trying to flush out insurgents in mosques, schools and other public buildings but did not say how much of the town had been secured.

The statement said at least 36 insurgents had been killed since the assault began Saturday in the town 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.

"Our strategy is basically to kill the insurgents when we come across them," Marine Capt. Conlon Carabine told CNN on Monday.

Carabine said U.S. and Iraqi troops would establish a long-term presence.

A Marine statement said three insurgents disguised as women tried to enter a camp for displaced civilians in Husaybah on Monday but were killed by Iraqi guards who saw their weapons. The statement also said Marines found the booby-trapped body of an insurgent in a school.

In Baghdad, a Sunni Arab politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi, urged U.S. and Iraqi forces to halt military offensives in Sunni towns like Husaybah, saying that would help encourage disaffected Sunnis to vote in elections next month.

Iraq's insurgency is primarily based within the Sunni Arab minority, which was the dominant group during Saddam Hussein's reign.

Dulaimi said U.S. and Iraqi commanders should "halt their attacks against cities and take into consideration that innocent people should not be punished because of the actions of others."

He nonetheless urged Sunnis not to boycott the Dec. 15 legislative elections.

[Last modified November 8, 2005, 02:15:36]