Baghdad, Iraq – The U.S. command announced Thursday the deaths of 14 more American troops, most of them killed by powerful roadside bombs in Baghdad.
Thick, black smoke rose from the heavily fortified Green Zone after a mortar barrage as militants struck back despite a massive military offensive, but as always, the attacks claimed far more Iraqi lives.
A suicide truck bombing outside the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area of northern Iraq killed at least 17 people, including the mayor, and wounded 66, officials said. Blame fell on militants affiliated with al-Qaeda, which has targeted government officials it accuses of collaborating with U.S. forces.
At least 15 servicemen have been killed since Tuesday, including 12 in a series of attacks beginning Wednesday. The military had previously announced one of the deaths.
The deadliest attack was a roadside bomb that struck a convoy Thursday in northeastern Baghdad, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter, the military said. The same day, a rocket-propelled grenade struck a vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding three others.
The U.S. military has sought to seize the momentum against al-Qaeda and other militants with the arrival in Iraq of some 30,000 additional troops. It has launched several large-scale operations. But the military has also faced a series of recent attacks on U.S. forces who are more vulnerable as they increasingly take to the streets and remote outposts, and the bombs appear to be growing more powerful.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said one of the aims of the latest offensives was to deprive militants of their safe havens, where they have been able to assemble huge quantities of explosives.
“We have seen in some instances the enemy having the ability to build a bigger bomb in the areas that we have not habitually operated in,” he said. “We’re looking to take that ability away from the enemy.”
The latest U.S. deaths raised to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Besides the deaths Thursday, another powerful roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded another in western Baghdad, and two Marines died in fighting in Anbar province on Wednesday.
Southwest of Baghdad, two soldiers were killed and four were wounded Tuesday when explosions struck near their vehicle, the military said.
An American airstrike aimed at a booby-trapped house in Baqu bah missed its target and “accidentally hit” another structure, wounding 11 civilians Wednesday, the U.S. military said.
About 100 miles north of the capital lies Sulaiman Bek, where the Thursday truck bombing took place. Iraqi commander Maj. Gen. Anwar Hama Amin blamed al-Qaeda for the suicide attack and said the terrorist group was targeting the city’s mayor, Abdullah al-Bayati. The mayor died later of his wounds.
In the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf, thousands of protesters waved Iraqi flags and black-and-green Shiite banners with slogans such as “Death to al-Qaeda.” They were showing unity after a bombing last week that brought down the twin minarets of the revered Askariya mosque in Samarra.
A 2006 bombing destroyed the mosque’s golden dome.
