Roadside bombs kill six US soldiers

Four American soldiers died in two bomb explosions in Baghdad, the U.S.-led coalition said today.

A day earlier, two US soldiers died in a similar attack in Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit.

A roadside bomb killed three soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division and injured another during a patrol on Saturday night in southeastern Baghdad, a coalition spokeswoman said.

A fourth soldier died at a combat hospital from injuries suffered in a blast in the Iraqi capital at 6.30am today, the spokeswoman said.

The deaths on Saturday in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, were the first casualties suffered by the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, which took over control of the restive Sunni Triangle town on the same day.

The soldiers, based in Germany, have been in Iraq for less than a month and formally took over security duties in the Tikrit area several hours after the fatal 5am blast.

In Baghdad, about 1,000 mourners attended the funeral today of a relative of a Shiite member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who was killed in a bomb blast in a shop on the previous day. The victim, Haidar al-Qazwini, was the brother-in-law of Shiite council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

“The aim of this criminal act is to ignite sectarian strife in the country,” al-Jaafari’s representative, Adnan al-Asadi, said at the funeral.

US and Iraqi security officials suspect militants are trying to trigger conflict between Sunnis, who dominated the government under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, and the resurgent Shiite majority.

Iraqi police said al-Qazwini died after an unidentified man entered a shop and left a bag containing explosives, which later detonated.

The White House said it has sent a senior White House official to Baghdad to help form an interim government – action that’s needed before sovereignty can be transferred to the Iraqi people by June 30.

In Baghdad, coalition spokesman Dan Senor identified the official as Ambassador Robert Blackwill of the National Security Council staff, and said he visits Iraq every four to six weeks.

In the Tikrit attack, gunshots were heard near the rear vehicle in a three-Humvee patrol seconds before a remote controlled bomb exploded under the second car, Capt. Tim Crowe said.

There were conflicting reports that the gunfire came from hidden gunmen or was caused by a soldier’s magazine clip overheating.

Two soldiers in the car were killed, while another three were wounded and taken to a military hospital in stable condition, the military said.

“We have arrested several people and continue to question them,” Crowe said.

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

The latest deaths brought to 564 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq. Of those, 385 died as a result of hostile action and 179 died of non-hostile causes.