5 U.S. Troops, 4 Iraqi Civilians Slain in Sunni Region

As a United Nations team began assessing the security situation in Iraq, insurgents launched a series of deadly bombings Saturday in the Sunni Muslim-dominated region outside Baghdad, killing five American soldiers and four Iraqi civilians.

Three U.S. soldiers died at a military checkpoint when a vehicle rigged with explosives blew up near a bridge in Khaldiyah. Six Americans and numerous Iraqis were wounded in the afternoon attack. The victims were treated at a nearby military hospital, a spokeswoman said.

Khaldiyah, in the Sunni Triangle region, has seen a spate of violence in recent weeks. Last month, 17 Iraqis died there when a car bomb exploded at a police station.

In Fallouja, just east of Khaldiyah, two American soldiers were killed when a homemade bomb planted alongside the road went off near their convoy, the military said. The soldiers’ names were withheld pending notification of their families.

A third attack in the biblical town of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad, narrowly missed a passing military convoy and killed at least four Iraqis who were standing near the town’s main courthouse, said Amer Mushin Salman, a spokesman for officials in Salahuddin province, where Samarra is located.

“They are targeting the innocent citizens of Iraq,” Salman said.

The blast injured 39 bystanders, including three U.S. soldiers, and destroyed seven cars.

“It detonated soon after a U.S. patrol had passed,” said Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a military spokesman in Tikrit.

Coalition forces have come under attack an average of 17 times a day over the last week, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman, said Saturday. The average in November, the month before Saddam Hussein’s capture, was 55 attacks a day. However, officials have said that in the months since the invasion of Iraq in March, insurgents’ attacks have become more deadly.

Northern Iraq, which has been more peaceful than the central region, has seen a recent surge in bloodshed. In the last week, five U.S. soldiers were wounded in the Mosul area in two separate bombings.

One bomb hidden in a vegetable cart wounded three soldiers as their convoy approached a traffic circle in Mosul, said Maj. Mike Shervington, a military spokesman. In an attack earlier in the week, two soldiers were seriously wounded during a nighttime patrol to search for explosive devices.

The latest attacks bring the U.S. death toll in Iraq to 512, according to Associated Press.

Saturday’s attacks underscored the ongoing dangers in Iraq as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepares to send in experts to determine whether early elections for a transitional government are feasible. A two-member U.N. security team arrived in the capital Friday to study whether international staffers should return.

Annan withdrew most U.N. staff from Iraq last fall after two bombings at the organization’s Baghdad headquarters.

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Special correspondent Suhail Ahmed contributed to this report.