- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- A roadside
bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday,
as Iraqis began burying dozens of victims of two attacks against locals
working with the U.S.-led occupation.
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- The U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said the bomb exploded
at 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) on Wednesday as the soldiers were passing by in
their vehicles.
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- The casualties were evacuated to a combat support hospital
for treatment where two soldiers later died, it said in a statement.
-
- The attack on the U.S. patrol came hours after a suicide
car bomb killed 47 people at an army recruitment centre in the capital.
A similar attack on a police station south of Baghdad killed 53 people
on Tuesday.
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- Only a few of the bodies from Wednesday's blast had been
taken for burial. Doctors said some corpses were difficult to identify
due to mutilation or bad burns.
-
- The police and new army are central to Washington's plan
to hand over power to Iraqis by June 30. Most of Wednesday's victims were
newly recruited soldiers reporting for duty.
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- The attacks follow a pattern of targeting Iraqis seen
as collaborating with the U.S. occupation. Twin suicide bombings in northern
Iraq against two Kurdish parties allied with the United States killed more
than 100 people on February 1.
-
- At least 372 American soldiers have been killed in combat
since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein last March.
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- U.N. ON TOUR
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- The violence rages as a U.N. team, led by veteran diplomat
Lakhdar Brahimi, is in the country discussing the possibility of holding
elections ahead of the June 30 handover deadline, as demanded by leaders
of the Shi'ite Muslim majority. U.S. plans are for elections only later.
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- Brahimi is due to leave by Friday at the latest, a senior
U.S.-led administration official said. The rest of the U.N. team has started
touring provinces. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to make
a decision on the elections on February 21.
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- Two bomb attacks against the U.N. presence in Baghdad
last year killed dozens and forced the U.N. to pull out of Iraq.
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- A small explosion on Thursday blew a small hole in a
road and smashed windows in a residential area of Samawa in southern Iraq
near where Japanese troops are stationed, but there were no reports of
injuries, police said.
-
- There is much concern in Japan about the safety of Japanese
military personnel who are being sent to help rebuild Iraq in Japan's riskiest
military mission since World War Two.
-
- In the southern city of Diwaniyah on Wednesday, five
Spanish soldiers on patrol were wounded when an explosive device was thrown
at them, Spain's Defence Ministry said.
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