BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers north of Baghdad on Saturday, pushing the U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict to nearly 4,000.
Also Saturday, Iraqi authorities reported that a U.S. airstrike north of the capital killed six members of a U.S.-backed Sunni group — straining relations with America’s new allies in the fight against al-Qaeda.
Two of the soldiers were killed in the blast, and the third later died of the wounds, the statement said. The soldiers were assigned to Multinational Division-Baghdad, the statement said, but it gave no further details.
The latest deaths brought to 3,996 the number of U.S. service members and Pentagon civilians who have died since the war began March 20, 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Rocket or mortar fire killed one U.S. soldier and wounded four others Friday south of Baghdad, the military said.
With the war entering its sixth year, President Bush paid tribute Saturday to America’s fallen service members, saying in his weekly radio address that they will “live on in the memory of the nation they helped defend.”
Speaking for the Democrats, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey called on Bush to “face the reality” in Iraq and “tell us the truth” about the cost of the conflict as the U.S. is struggling with a faltering economy and mounting casualty tolls.
U.S. officials have pointed to several positive signs, including a 60 percent drop in violence since Bush ordered 30,000 U.S. reinforcements to Iraq last year. Iraqis have also made some limited progress in power-sharing deals among rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities.
However, U.S. military commanders have been careful to point out that security gains are fragile and that major violence could erupt abruptly.
Much of the progress has been due to a move by thousands of Sunnis to abandon the insurgency and join pro-U.S. defense groups — known as “awakening councils.” Another was a cease-fire called in August by firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the feared Mahdi Army militia.
Also Saturday:
• A U.S. attack helicopter fired on two checkpoints manned by U.S.-allied Sunni fighters near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing six and injuring two, Iraqi police said.
The U.S. military said an AH-64 Apache helicopter fired on the positions after five people were “spotted conducting suspicious terrorist activity” in an area notorious for roadside bombs.
“Initial reports suggested the attack may have been a Sons of Iraq checkpoint,” the military said, using a term for the armed U.S.-backed groups. “The incident is currently under a joint Iraqi-Coalition Force investigation.”
• A bomb exploded on a minibus in a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least one passenger and injuring eight, police said.
• Bombs exploded at four offices of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society in the Mansour district of Baghdad, causing damage but no casualties. The Red Crescent Society is the Muslim world’s equivalent of the Red Cross.
• A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one passer-by and injured seven, including five officers, in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
• An awakening council member in western Baghdad’s Mansour neighborhood was killed and four others injured in a mortar blast, police and hospital officials said.
