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By Waleed Ibrahim and Khalid al-Ansary
Reuters
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; 10:28 AM BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an
interpreter in a region of northern Iraq where U.S. and Iraqi forces are
battling al Qaeda, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
The attack, which brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
this week to seven, suggests al Qaeda remains dangerous in the northern
province of Nineveh and its capital, Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of
Baghdad. A spokesman said U.S. forces did not know exactly who was responsible
for Tuesday night's attack in Nineveh, but they always suspected al Qaeda. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been carrying out intensive operations
against al Qaeda in the Mosul area for weeks, aiming to stamp out the
Sunni Arab insurgents in a city U.S. officials say is their last major
urban stronghold. The Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, Major-General Mohammed al-Askari,
promised more military operations in Nineveh and in Diyala province,
northeast of Baghdad, also a hotbed of al Qaeda activity. "Nineveh province is a big province. It cannot be secured overnight; it
needs huge efforts. There will be an operation for these small red (hot)
spots," he told a news briefing. Preparations were also under way for an operation to "cleanse (Diyala
province) thoroughly of terrorists" and the military was only awaiting a
green light from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, he said. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said last month that al Qaeda in
Iraq had never been closer to defeat. But U.S. and Iraqi officials say
the group, blamed for countless bombings that killed thousands of
people, remains a threat. Security forces report daily bombings, shootings and kidnappings in the
Mosul area. Tuesday's attack brings the U.S. military death toll to 25 so far in
June, according to the independent Web site iCasualties.org, which
tracks U.S. military casualties. It came on the same day that two U.S. soldiers and two U.S. government
employees, as well as six Iraqis, were killed when a bomb exploded at a
council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr. On Monday, a gunman killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded three as they
left a council building southeast of Baghdad. MILITARY TOLL Deaths among the 150,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have risen again in June
after falling to 19 in May, the lowest monthly total since the 2003
invasion. More than 4,100 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq in the
last five years. The future of U.S. troops in Iraq is a key issue in November's U.S.
presidential election and the subject of tough negotiations between the
Iraqi and U.S. governments. The U.S. military says violence fell to a four-year low in May after
crackdowns by U.S. and Iraqi forces on Shi'ite militias in Baghdad and
the south and on al Qaeda in Mosul. Late on Tuesday, a suicide car bomber struck a police station in Mosul,
killing a policeman and a child and wounding 94 people, including eight
policemen, police said. Elsewhere, U.S. forces said they killed three occupants of a vehicle
that fired on their convoy near Baghdad airport. Askari said 95 wanted people, including some local government members,
had been arrested during an offensive against Shi'ite militias in the
southern province of Maysan. Twenty-one arms caches had been found, he said. He said the government was giving militants a one-week amnesty before
security forces fan out through Maysan province in a new phase of the
operation to root out weapons. During the next week, militants can surrender to tribal leaders, who
must submit a commitment to the security forces that the militant will
not take up arms again. "The amnesty covers everybody except those whose hands have been stained
with Iraqi blood," he said. Iraqi forces swept through Amara, Maysan's provincial capital, last
week, seizing heavy weapons and arresting wanted men. They met no
resistance.
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