IRAQ

Bomb kills 5 US soldiers

04-11-2009 | AP

Panama Star BAGHDAD. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a sandbagged wall Friday in northern Iraq, killing five American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen in the single deadliest attack against US forces in more than a year.

A sixth American soldier and 17 Iraqi policemen were wounded in the blast that took place near the national police headquarters in southwestern Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city and al-Qaida's last urban stronghold.

Suicide bombings — a hallmark of al-Qaida's attack style — continue to threaten the city, which US troops must leave by June 30 under an agreement with the Iraqis. The deadline has raised fears about what will happen after American soldiers depart.

Lt. Col. Michael Stuart, chief of US operations in Tikrit, an Iraqi city north of Baghdad, said the target was the Iraqi national police complex in Mosul and not the US patrol. He said the American patrol just happened to be on the same street when the attack occurred. "It was just bad timing," Stuart told The Associated Press.

Friday's blast was the deadliest single bombing attack in more than a year. The US military said that the last time five US soldiers were killed in an attack was when a suicide bomber targeted an American patrol in Baghdad on March 2008.