Five now dead after Iraq blasts

Two US soldiers and three Iraqis were killed in separate bomb attacks today, a day after UN security experts arrived in the capital to study the possible return of its international staff.

The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that struck their convoy near Fallujah, 50 miles west of Baghdad in an area that has been a centre of anti-American resistance.

The latest deaths brought to 509 the number of American service members who have died since the US and its allies launched the Iraq war March 20.

In another attack, a truck bomb exploded soon after a US patrol passed by in Samarra, an area north and west of Baghdad that is home to diehard Saddam Hussein loyalists who have been blamed for most of the attacks on civilians and US forces.

Three Iraqi civilians were killed and 33 people were injured in the Samarra blast, military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters.

Three US soldiers were slightly wounded, he said.

The US military police patrol was turning into a police station to join Iraqi police when the explosion occurred behind it, said Sgt Maj Nathan Wilson of the 720th Military Police Battalion.

Despite Saddam’s capture, insurgents loyal to him have continued to attack police stations and US troops.

Also today, at least one sniper in a building shot and wounded an US soldier who was in a foot patrol in a Baghdad neighbourhood, Major Kevin West said.

A bridge across the Tigris River in Baghdad, leading to the coalition headquarters, was closed by US troops for two hours.

Witnesses said they were searching for a bomb, but this could not be independently confirmed.

Baghdad has been a frequent target of insurgents. In one of the deadliest attacks, the UN headquarters in the capital was bombed in August, killing 22 people including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan withdrew all foreign UN staff in October.

A UN military adviser and a security co-ordinator arrived on Friday in Baghdad, the first foreign staff to return since then.

They planned to meet with officials from the US-led coalition and inspect buildings the world body might use, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“Their primary focus will be to open lines of communication … and also to look after the interests of our national staff in Iraq,” Dujarric said.

Annan also is considering sending a separate security team that would be needed if he decides to send experts to Iraq to determine whether direct elections for a transitional government were feasible.

That team would help resolve a dispute between the coalition and Iraq’s leading Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who is demanding direct elections as opposed to a US plan for letting regional caucuses choose a legislature.

The legislature would then name a new Iraqi government that will take over from the coalition on July 1, under the US plan adopted on November 15.

On Friday, a US Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing the two pilots, the US military said. The cause of the crash was unclear.