Two soldiers killed in Iraq

A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers and wounded four others today, the first casualties suffered by a US Army regiment taking over security in Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit as part of a giant troop rotation in Iraq.

The bomb destroyed the troops’ armoured Humvee as they patrolled central Tikrit at about 5am, hours before a ceremony formally handing over security duties in the area.

In the attack, gunmen opened fire on the rear vehicle in the three-Humvee patrol, then the bomb went off by the second Humvee, said one of the soldiers at the scene.

Roadside bombs have become the main threat to US soldiers on patrol in the Sunni Triangle, a region north and west of Baghdad that has seen some of the fiercest guerrilla fighting.