Two US soldiers killed in blast

A ROADSIDE bomb left two soldiers dead, while an Apache helicopter killed seven guerrillas thought to be preparing a rocket attack on an American base, the US military said yesterday.

Earlier, gunmen killed an American civilian contractor and injured another north of Baghdad, while Apache helicopter fire killed seven people suspected of preparing a rocket attack on an American base near Tikrit.

American forces kept up their new "get-tough" campaign against the insurgency, and the US Central Command said it will add several hundred staff members to its forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar.