Military: 4 soldiers killed by Iraq car bomb

[unhappycamper]

Military: 4 soldiers killed by Iraq car bomb
By Robert H. Reid - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 9, 2009 21:14:50 EST

BAGHDAD — A suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol Monday in northern Iraq, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months.

The blast occurred as U.S. vehicles were passing near an Iraqi police checkpoint in Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city and the last major urban battleground in the war against al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents.

American casualties have fallen to some of their lowest levels of the war since thousands of Sunnis abandoned the insurgency and U.S. and Iraqi forces routed Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra last spring. Only five of the 16 U.S. service members who died in Iraq last month were killed in action.

However, fighting continues in Mosul and elsewhere in northern Iraq — a conflict which U.S. officials say is driven in part by ethnic rivalries between Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Many Sunni extremists are believed to have fled north after being driven from longtime strongholds in Baghdad and central Iraq.

A U.S. statement said three U.S. soldiers were killed at the scene of Monday’s attack. A fourth soldier and the interpreter died of wounds at a military hospital, the U.S. said.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/army_carbomb_020909w/%2e



uhc comment: To date four thousand two hundred forty three American soldiers have been killed in the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq --> http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx