Suicide bomber launches attack against US base in Baghdad

Insurgents launched an attack on a U.S. combat post Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American troops. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the military said.

Photo: Suicide bomber launches attack against US base in Baghdad

Suicide bomber launches attack against US base in Baghdad

The assault began with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement. It gave no further details beyond the number of dead and wounded.

Residents said U.S. forces fought with militants after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base near Tarmiyah, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad. For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving.

The attack came on a day when a string of car bombings and other attacks claimed nearly 30 civilian lives in Baghdad and elsewhere.

In Baghdad, five people were killed when a suicide attacker donated a bomb-rigged belt on a public bus headed for the mostly Shiite area of Karradah in central Baghdad, police reported.

A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Shiite area of Zafraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, officials said. Only 100 meters (yards) away, a bomb hidden in an open-air market exploded, killing at least five.

In Mahmoudiya, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the capital, a car bomb went off among auto repair shops, killing two and wounding two, police said. Mahmoudiya is mostly Shiite with Sunnis living in villages around the community and has long been a flashpoint for sectarian violence.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a car bomb in Ramadi, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of Baghdad, killed at least nine bystanders congregated at a police checkpoint in the aftermath of a failed suicide attack, reports AP.

In Duluiyah, a Sunni area about 75 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad, at least four were killed when a bomb-rigged car exploded.

Police said at least 62 people died Sunday in the attack in the mostly Shiite area of New Baghdad. Scores were injured as extremists sent a bloody calling card to officials boasting that militant factions were on the run.

The U.S. military announced Monday that a U.S. Marine was killed two days earlier during combat operations in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent hotspot west of the capital.