3 American Troops Killed in Iraq

Three U.S. troops died Sunday in Iraq as Marines continued a series of raids south of the capital on suspected insurgent strongholds.

Two Marines were killed in Babil province, where the raids were taking place, the military said, giving no further details. Near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier died when his 5-ton truck rolled into a canal. The troops’ identities were withheld pending notification of family members.

In the raids in Babil, Marines said they had killed several insurgents and taken 32 suspects into custody. At one site, troops turned up a cache of hundreds of 130-millimeter artillery shells.

In Samarra, 65 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb killed six people and injured five others. The blast occurred as a minibus drove past a school, police Maj. Qahtan Mohammed said. All the casualties were passengers in the minibus, he said.