Attack Kills 5 U.S. Troops, 2 Iraqi Guardsmen at Base

Insurgents set off a car bomb at a military compound in the city of Samarra on Thursday and launched mortar attacks, killing five U.S. soldiers and wounding 20 others, the Army said.

Two Iraqi National Guard soldiers also were killed and four were wounded, it said.

The strike was the deadliest attack on U.S. forces since Iraq regained a measure of self-governance June 28.

It brought to 18 the number of U.S. troops reported dead in Iraq this month. A total of 42 U.S. troops were killed in June, down from 80 in May and 135 in April, according to Associated Press, which tracks American military casualties.

Samarra, a largely Sunni Muslim city 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, has long been a hotbed of armed resistance against U.S.-led coalition forces. The Army’s 4th Infantry Division moved its base out of town last year after almost daily mortar attacks culminated in a strike that killed two soldiers. The division mounted a major offensive to root out insurgents, but attacks on U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies have persisted.

On July 1, the Army turned over control of its civilian-military operations center in Samarra to the local government. U.S. forces have continued to patrol inside the city, often with Iraqi troops. Commanders say the security arrangement is different from one in the western city of Fallouja, which has become a no-go zone for Marines.

Thursday’s violence began at 10:30 a.m. when insurgents attacked the military compound with a car bomb and more than 38 mortar rounds, said Maj. Neal O’Brien of the 1st Infantry Division, which operates in a broad swath of northern Iraq. The barrage collapsed a building used by U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guardsmen. The Army returned mortar fire, O’Brien said.

Later in the afternoon, a U.S. patrol in Samarra came under fire from assailants, who were then seen fleeing into a building. An attack helicopter launched Hellfire missiles into the building, killing four insurgents, O’Brien said.

Reports from Samarra General Hospital indicated that four Iraqi civilians were killed and more than 30 injured in the day’s battles. It was not clear whether the Iraqis were hit in the attack on the military compound or in other fighting.

A spate of kidnappings continued to grip Iraq on Thursday. In videotape broadcast on Arabic-language Al Jazeera satellite television, militants threatened to kill two Bulgarian hostages whom they claimed to have seized. Al Jazeera said the tape had come from the Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad, or Unity and Jihad Group, headed by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi.

The tape showed two men, identified as Bulgarians, sitting in front of their captors. It said the men would be killed within 24 hours unless U.S. forces released imprisoned militants.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday ordered a halt on travel to Iraq by Filipinos after videotape on Al Jazeera showed a Philippine hostage at the feet of three masked gunmen.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled ibn Waleed Corps claimed to be holding the hostage, who was shown Wednesday wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those worn by previous captives of the group led by Zarqawi. The gunmen demanded that Arroyo’s government withdraw its troops within three days, or the hostage, whose name was not given, would be killed. The group claimed to have already slain an Iraqi guard accompanying the hostage.

The Philippines has contributed 51 of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq, but more than 4,000 Filipinos work in civilian jobs providing services to the force.

In Baghdad, a former senior official of ousted leader Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party died in an explosion outside a textile plant. The blast appeared to have been caused by a bomb rigged to his car. Police said they had little information on the death of the man, identified as Ali Abbas Hassan. Many ex-Baathists have been targeted for assassination since the regime fell last year.

Iraq’s new interim government, headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, has vowed to contain such violence to allow the nation to recover from the U.S.-led occupation and move toward free elections in January.