Two soldiers killed in mortar attack

A mortar attack tonight killed two US soldiers and left 16 wounded – one critically – on a logistical base west of the Iraqi capital.

Major Richard Spiegel of the Army’s 13th Corps Support Command said the mortar barrage hit the Logistical Base Seitz, on Baghdad’s western outskirts.

Eight of the injured were evacuated by air to the Army’s 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, where the two later died of their wounds, Spiegel said.

The remaining 10 injured were evacuated by ground ambulance to other military hospitals.

One wounded soldier is listed as critical and four of the injured have returned to duty. Names of the dead and wounded are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

Spiegel said the attack is under investigation.

The soldiers killed and wounded all belonged to the Army’s 13th Corps Support Command, which oversees distribution of military fuel, food, water and other supplies to US forces across Iraq.

US bases are daily targets of insurgents’ mortar and rocket barrages. Most of the munitions explode without injury.

Also today, a car bomb exploded outside an air base used by US forces near Dijiel, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, injuring one American soldier and two Iraqi civilians, the US military said. Three suspects were detained near the site of the attack, said Army Sgt Robert Powell.