Six US soldiers killed as pressure mounts on insurgents

A suicide attack and roadside bombings killed six American soldiers as coalition troops stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before this week’s start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A suicide driver ploughed into a US convoy and blew up his car in the northern city of Mosul today, killing two American soldiers and wounding five.

It was the second deadly suicide attack against American convoys in Mosul in the past three days.

In Baghdad, Iraq’s interim prime minister also warned that US and Iraqi forces will launch military operations in the main insurgent stronghold Fallujah if residents do not hand over Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group has kidnapped and beheaded numerous foreigners, including Briton Ken Bigley.

During today’s raids, US troops swept into the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi and joined Iraqi police and National Guardsmen in raids in Baqouba after a day of fierce clashes in militant enclaves stretching from the gates of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

Last year, insurgents sharply increased their attacks against coalition forces during Ramadan, expected to start at the end of this week.

Extremists believe they win a special place in paradise if they die in a jihad, or holy war, during Ramadan.

Three of the US deaths occurred late on Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy in eastern Baghdad, Another American soldier died in a bombing before dawn today in western Baghdad.