Iraq attack kills three US soldiers

A ROADSIDE bomb killed three US soldiers south of Baghdad yesterday and coalition forces shot to death three insurgents in Samarra — the site of the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in February that set off a wave of sectarian killings in Iraq.

The violence came as a videotape showing the most wanted terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, wearing US tennis shoes and struggling to fire a US-made machine gun was repeatedly broadcast on television.

The video — released on Thursday by the US military to undercut al-Zarqawi’s image — was seized in a raid last month.

The US command provided few details about the roadside bomb that killed three US soldiers in Babil province south of Baghdad.

But Babil Police Capt. Muthana Khalid said the explosion heavily damaged a Humvee in a US military convoy at about 11.30am near Mahaweel city, 35 miles south of Baghdad. He said two US soldiers were immediately killed and one died later.

The attack raised to at least 2,414 the number of members of the US military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.

Elsewhere, US and Iraqi forces clamped a curfew in Samarra yesterday as they searched homes looking for insurgents, police Capt Laith Mohammed said.

On Thursday, US soldiers detained three suspected insurgents carrying roadside bombs in Samarra, then killed three other militants who opened fire on the US forces. An Iraqi citizen was wounded in the crossfire.

The bodies of five Iraqis who apparently were kidnapped and killed also were found yesterday, four in Baghdad and one on the city’s outskirts. Sectarian killings by “death squads” are common in Iraq.

Meanwhile, US Maj General Rick Lynch mocked al-Zarqawi as footage showed him struggling to fire a machine gun and wearing New Balance tennis shoes. Al-Zarqawi has derided everything Western.