5 U.S. Personnel Killed in Iraq

Four American soldiers and a sailor were slain in Iraq over the last two days, the U.S. military said Thursday, the latest in a series of stepped-up attacks in the last two months.

A roadside bomb killed the soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter northwest of Baghdad on Thursday. The sailor died in Al Anbar province, west of the capital, a day earlier.

U.S. service members have been dying at a rate of 2 1/2 a day in May, an increase over late 2005 and early this year but not as high as during some periods earlier in the war.

Military leaders have described the increased violence against Americans and Iraqis as insurgents’ attempt to derail the government that Prime Minister-designate Nouri Maliki is expected to announce Saturday.

The U.S. military’s new chief spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, urged the media to focus on Iraqis’ improving participation in national security. He said Iraqis had been phoning in tips to a government hotline at a record pace, helping to prevent even greater violence.

Caldwell said he believed the greater number of calls did not reflect an increase in violence but rather underscored a feeling by Iraqis that they “are tired of the violence and they realize there is somebody who will show up and take some action.”

The general described recent raids by U.S. and Iraqi forces, one of which led to the seizure of a large weapons cache on the grounds of a Baghdad mosque and the other to the capture of a cell leader who made car bombs.

The U.S. military reported two other successes Thursday, saying it had killed several insurgents who had been launching attacks from an abandoned train station in Ramadi, and intervened to prevent a roadside bombing and ambush in Mosul, killing three rebels.

One of the first tasks for Maliki and his new government will be to recommend when Iraqi military and police units are ready to assume national security responsibility from the U.S.

The governor of Al Anbar made his own recommendation Thursday, saying he wanted the Americans to withdraw from Ramadi and other cities.

Gov. Mamoun Sami Rasheed said U.S. forces had been unable to bring stability to the region racked by the Sunni Arab-led insurgency. Al Anbar residents, he said, “have suffered a lot because of the military operations.” American commanders did not immediately respond.

Violence and intimidation against Iraqis, both civilian and uniformed, continued Thursday.

Fifteen members of the national tae kwon do team were kidnapped on the highway between Fallouja and Ramadi. A $100,000 ransom was demanded for the athletes, who were returning from a competition in Jordan, a spokesman for Iraq’s Olympic committee said.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, three people were killed. One was a local political activist and the others were a teacher and student at a vocational school.

In Basra, Police Chief Hassan Suwadi escaped an assassination attempt near his home.

Baghdad remained the focal point of the deadliest violence.

Two roadside bombs apparently aimed at a police convoy exploded in the Waziriya district, killing seven. On the southern end of the capital, insurgents ambushed a minivan and killed six people, local authorities said.

Times wire services contributed to this report.