5 U.S. troops killed in Iraq

The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of five more American troops in Iraq. Meanwhile, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq purportedly issued a taunting audiotape urging the Bush administration to “stay on the battleground” so that more American troops would be killed.

Two U.S. soldiers died Thursday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in west Baghdad, officials said. In Al Anbar province Thursday, a Marine died in combat and a soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb west of Haditha. Another Marine was killed in an accident Friday, the military said.

More than half of the U.S. troops slain by insurgents this month have been killed in western Al Anbar, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency.

On Friday, a suicide car bomber killed six Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14 at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Tall Afar, west of Mosul, including Col. Kareem Jassem, commander of the Iraqi 3rd Division.

Elsewhere in the north, gunmen in Kirkuk killed an Iraqi soldier in front of his house.

South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi police officers and wounded one.

In the capital, gunmen ambushed a local police chief, Ayad Ibrahim, and three other officers. After a shootout, the gunmen kidnapped Ibrahim and two of the officers; the third one fled.

Nine bodies, shot execution-style, were found in various Baghdad neighborhoods, according to Iraqi authorities.

The audio recording, allegedly by Sheik Abu Hamza, or “Al Muhajir,” leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, was posted on the Internet, apparently in a response to this week’s U.S. midterm election.

“I tell the lame duck [administration]: Do not rush to escape as did your Defense minister,” Hamza said, according to Reuters news service. “Stay on the battleground.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld resigned Wednesday after the Democrats won control of both the House and Senate.

Of the 24 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq this month, 20 were killed in attacks by insurgents, two when their Apache helicopters crashed during bad weather in Salahuddin province, and two in accidents, according to icasualties.org, a website that compiles the number of fatalities using U.S. military statements.

A surge in attacks against U.S. troops last month left 103 dead, the highest toll in almost two years. In the 3 1/2 years since the U.S.-led invasion, at least 2,843 American troops have died.

roug@latimes.com

Times special correspondent Ruaa Zarary in Mosul contributed to this report.