4 U.S. Troops Among 11 Dead

Four U.S. troops died in Iraq on Sunday in attacks and accidents as insurgents kept up their campaign of violence.

One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in an “indirect fire” attack on a base near Samarra, north of Baghdad, the military said. Indirect fire usually refers to a mortar or rocket strike.

Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers on patrol died when their armored Humvee plunged into a canal near Balad, also north of Baghdad. Five other soldiers were injured while attempting to rescue them.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi general was assassinated. Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan was shot while traveling through the capital’s Kadhimiya district, an Iraqi police officer said.

A website used by insurgents posted a statement claiming responsibility for the attack in the name of Al Qaeda. The declaration described Farhan as a senior commander in the Iraqi national guard and the commander at Taji, a military base north of Baghdad.

In another attack in the capital, the bodies of two men who worked with interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s party were found.

Three people were killed and four wounded when guerrillas fired several rockets at the City Council building in the northern city of Mosul, the scene of bitter fighting in recent months.

South of the capital, a car bomb exploded near an Iraqi security forces checkpoint on the road between Hillah and Karbala in a predominantly Shiite area, killing at least one person.

Iraq has announced it will close its land borders starting Thursday to try to prevent a flood of foreign pilgrims arriving for Ashura, one of the holiest periods of the Shiite Muslim calendar, when millions converge on shrines in Iraq.

Suicide bombers attacked pilgrims in Baghdad and Karbala last year, killing about 180 people, and authorities fear Ashura might attract violence again this year.