Two US troops die in mortar attack on Baghdad base

TWO American soldiers were killed and four were wounded yesterday in a mortar attack on their base north of Baghdad. Earlier a US trooper was killed in a shoot-out in the northern city of Mosul.

The latest US deaths occurred when a mortar struck a forward operating base near Samara, 70 miles north of Baghdad, about noon yesterday.

Thirteen other soldiers were injured the previous night in a mortar attack near Baqouba, 40 miles north-east of the capital.