Four die in US airstrike in central Iraq

Four Iraqis were killed in a US airstrike in central Iraq while five American soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were wounded in a car bomb explosion north of Baghdad, according to reports.

The five Task Force Danger soldiers and the civilian were travelling in a Humvee near Hawija, some 150 miles north of Baghdad, when the blast occurred, the US military said today.

A suspected insurgent was detained at the site of the attack, the statement added. The injured were evacuated to multi-national forces medical facilities for treatment and are in stable condition, it said.

Early today, US aircraft bombed a target in the city of Hit, west of Baghdad, killing four people and injuring seven, said Hamdi Al-Alosi, a doctor in the local hospital. The attack caused damage to several cars and two houses, he said.

There was no immediate confirmation from the US military.

US Marines from the 1st Marine Division seized several weapons caches in and near the city of Al Amirya, southeast of Baghdad, during clearing operations, the military said.

The caches seized yesterday included mortar shells, RPG rounds and five rocket launchers. The 1st Marine Division will conduct a controlled detonation in order to destroy the weapons and munitions, the statement said.

Meanwhile, insurgents have attacked a major oil pipeline south of Kirkuk, ceasing exports through Turkey, an oil company official said.

The pipeline, in the area of Fatha, 70 miles south-west of Kirkuk, was bombed late yesterday, the official for the North Oil Company said.

The line leading from the northern oil fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, a principal export route for Iraqi oil, was reported to be on fire with firefighters battling to control the blaze.

Oil-rich Kirkuk is about 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Insurgents have often targeted Iraq’s oil infrastructure, repeatedly cutting exports and denying the country much-needed reconstruction money.