Roadside bombs explode north if Iraqi capital

Assailants detonated roadside bombs in two separate attacks north of the Iraqi capital today, killing three civilians in attacks apparently aimed at passing US troops, hospital officials said.

There were no immediate reports of American casualties.

In one of the attacks, a bomb exploded after a US convoy drove by on a road in Baqouba, 60 kilometres (35 miles) north-east of Baghdad, said Hussein Ali, an official at Baqouba’s main hospital.

Two civilians were killed and four injured in the blast.

In Sabtiya village, four kilometres (two miles) north of Baqouba, another bomb exploded on a roadside after a US convoy passed, said Mudher Sabah, also from Baqouba General Hospital.

A sanitation worker cleaning the street was killed and another man was wounded in the attack.