US marines die in bombings

2006-02-07 14:10

Baghdad - Four United States marines died in a pair of roadside bombings in western Iraq's volatile Anbar province, said the military on Tuesday. Another explosion killed two Iraqi civilians, south of Baghdad.

The blasts highlighted the constant danger posed by homemade bombs across Iraq, which had become the deadliest weapon used by mainly Sunni Arab insurgents against the US-led military presence in the country.

According to a statement, three marines were killed by a bomb blast on Monday in Hit, 140km west of Baghdad.

Iraqi army battalion

The victims were assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit that had operated in Anbar province since mid-December with an Iraqi army battalion.

Another marine, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died from wounds caused by a bomb blast on Sunday in an unspecified location within Anbar, which included the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

According to reports, the latest deaths took the number of US military personnel killed to at least 2 257 since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

Police said that early on Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a pickup truck, south of Baghdad, and killed two Iraqi civilians, while gunmen shot dead a supporter of fiery anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Gunmen killed a Shi'ite supporter

Captain Muthana Khaled said the blast took place near a bridge in Youssifiyah, 20km south of Baghdad, and destroyed the vehicle the two people were travelling in.

It was unclear if the civilians were the targets of the attack.

Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said that drive-by gunmen killed a supporter of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad's southern Dora neighbourhood.

The victim worked at al-Sadr's office in Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of Baghdad.

The incident appeared to be the latest bout in a spate of sectarian-related killings carried out by rival armed Shi'ite and Sunni Arab groups vying for ascendancy in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

Incessant violence

The killings also came amid efforts to form a national unity government comprising members of the country's Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities.

The United States hoped such a government could help reduce the incessant violence.

Lieutenant colonel Karim al-Zubaidi said another roadside bomb wounded four policemen in western Basra, 550km southeast of Baghdad.

Abdul-Razzaq said a homemade bomb exploded in a bin in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Jihad, blowing an oil refinery worker's hand off.

- AP