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Explosions kill 4 U.S. troops

An explosives team found the type of projectile the U.S. suspects is imported from Iran.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published March 16, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four American soldiers were killed and two others were wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicles in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The soldiers were returning from search operations when one roadside bomb detonated, then another. The second bomb caused the casualties, the military said.

An explosives disposal team that inspected the site after the blasts found an EFP, explosively formed projectile, the military said. EFPs are powerful, armor-piercing roadside bombs that the U.S. military has said are likely manufactured by and imported from Iran. The weapons have killed at least 170 U.S. soldiers since 2005.

The military did not identify the soldiers killed, pending notification of family members.

Earlier, a car bomb ripped through a square in central Baghdad, killing at least eight people, including several Iraqi police officers manning a nearby checkpoint, officials said.

And a car bomb slammed into a bus ferrying government workers in Iskandariyah, a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad. At least four people were killed and 24 were injured, a provincial police spokesman said.

The incidents underscored recent appraisals of the city's month-old security plan by U.S. military officials, who this week credited the crackdown for a drop in the number of murders and executions while noting that car bombings reached a record high in February.

At the same time, violence has risen in some neighboring provinces, prompting U.S. and Iraqi officials to speculate that Sunni and Shiite outlaws have migrated to the outskirts of Baghdad.

U.S. forces have been seeking out car bomb factories with "some success in finding some and taking them out," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said at a briefing Wednesday.

He warned that a continued rise in car bombings could "start that whole cycle of violence again."

Thursday's car bombing in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada took place when an explosives-laden car detonated seconds after a convoy carrying Sabir al-Issawi, the mayor of Baghdad, passed through the checkpoint, police said.

Five police officers and three city employees were killed, and 25 others were injured, said Saadoun Sami, a spokesman for the Ministry of Information. Issawi was unhurt, but a truck at the rear of the convoy burst into flames.

One police source said four of the Issawi's bodyguards also were killed.

Karrada, a mostly Shiite neighborhood, has been the site of several attacks in recent months.

This week, a car bomb exploded in front of a Sunni mosque in Karrada, killing 11 people and injuring four, police said. A truck bomb at a Karrada market killed more than 100 people last month.

A U.S. soldier assigned to Multi National Force-West was killed Wednesday during combat operations in Anbar province, in western Iraq, the military reported.

[Last modified March 16, 2007, 01:17:42]