Baghdad, Iraq – Five U.S. troops were killed over the weekend in Iraq, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll for April past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces this year.
A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up during a Shiite funeral in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the deadliest in a series of attacks that killed nearly 100 people nationwide.
The bomber detonated his explosives about 6:30 p.m. inside a tent where mourners were gathered in Khalis, a flashpoint Shiite enclave in Diyala province.
Officials in Diyala and Baghdad said at least 32 people were killed and 63 wounded in the blast.
The killings of the Americans came as U.S. troops have been increasingly deployed on the streets of Baghdad and housed with Iraqi troops in joint security operations away from their heavily fortified bases, raising their vulnerability to attacks.
A series of explosions rocked central Baghdad Monday night, and witnesses reported seeing smoke rising from the heavily fortified Green Zone. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information on the blasts.
About a dozen blasts began about 10 p.m. and lasted about five minutes.
Iraqi police said several mortar shells landed in the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government headquarters, and thousands of American troops.
On Sunday, three American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb while on a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said. A U.S. soldier was slain Saturday by small-arms fire in the same part of the city – a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations to quell sectarian violence.
A Marine also was killed Sunday in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, the military said.
The U.S. deaths raised to at least 104 the number of American troops who have died in Iraq in April.
At least 3,351 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started, according to an Associated Press count.
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Update
Developments
Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British army, has decided that Prince Harry, the third in line to the throne, will serve with a combat unit in Iraq despite reported threats by Iraqi insurgents to kill or kidnap the prince.
Iranian envoy Ali Larijani meets with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hosh yar Zebari and offers Iranian support for the Iraqi government. A direct envoy from Iran’s ruling clerics, Larijani is considered more influential than Iranian Cabinet ministers and is the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
An al-Qaeda front organization – the Islamic State in Iraq – announces it is preparing a “long-term war of attrition” in Anbar province against the Americans and U.S.-backed Sunni sheiks.
The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi parliament threatens to withdraw its ministers from the Shiite-dominated Cabinet today in frustration over the Iraqi government’s failure to deal with Sunni concerns. President Bush calls one of Iraq’s two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, and invites him to Washington.
Casualties
The U.S. military announces that three American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb Sunday in eastern Baghdad. Another U.S. soldier was killed Saturday by small-arms fire in the same area. A Marine died in combat Sunday in Anbar province.
