Five US soldiers killed in mortar blitz

INSURGENTS bombarded a headquarters used by American troops and Iraqi forces with mortar rounds in the city of Samarra yesterday, destroying the building and killing five US soldiers and one Iraqi guardsman.

The attack, part of a day of violence and street battles in the city, wounded 20 US soldiers and four Iraqi guardsmen, said Major Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.

The violence also killed three civilians, medical officials said, and US helicopters killed four Iraqi attackers, said O'Brien.

Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, in the so-called Sunni Triangle, is a hotbed of anti-coalition resistance.

Iraqi insurgents began a massive attack on forces there when they launched 38 mortars at the military headquarters, collapsing the building, said O'Brien.

The military said some of the rounds landed in civilian areas. Dr Abid Tawfiq, director of the Samarra General Hospital, said three civilians were killed and 20 others were injured.

About 25 minutes after the mortar attack -when radar determined where the attack had originated - US soldiers responded with four mortar rounds.

US and Iraqi troops fanned out through the city to flush out insurgents and were fired on by four men who fled into a building, said O'Brien.

US helicopters attacked the building with Hellfire missiles, killing the attackers, he said.

Gunshots and tank shell explosions could still be heard, late into the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, a US military convoy in Samarra was targeted by a roadside bomb that wounded one US soldier. An explosion ripped through a car outside a textile factory in Baghdad's Dora neighbourhood, killing a former senior Baath Party official.

Authorities do not yet know the cause of the explosion that killed Ali Abbas Hassan at the gate of his factory. The violence came a day after Iraq unveiled emergency laws giving the government broad powers to fight its enduring insurgency.

Also yesterday, the Philippines barred its contract workers from travelling to Iraq after militants released a videotape threatening to kill a Filipino hostage if the country does not withdraw its troops.

The Philippines, with only 51 troops, make up a tiny fraction of the Multinational Force. But more than 4,000 Filipino civilians work as contractors for the US military, serving food, cleaning toilets and forming the backbone of the support staff for US troops.