US casualties in Iraq top 1,500

The number of US troops killed in Iraq has topped 1,500 today after the military announced the deaths of three Americans, while car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least four people in separate attacks.

Two suicide car bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry in eastern Baghdad today, killing at least two policemen and wounding five others, police Major Jabar Hassan said.

Officials at nearby al-Kindi hospital said 15 people were injured in the blasts, part of the relentless wave of violence since the January 30 elections.

Another car bomb targeting a police convoy exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, killing one Iraqi policeman and a civilian, the US military said. Six police and 10 other civilians were also wounded.

Amid the violence, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi extended the state of emergency, first announced nearly four months ago, for another 30 days until the end of March. The order remains in effect throughout the country, except in northern Kurdish-run areas.

The emergency decree includes a night-time curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations when it deems necessary.

The latest reported American deaths brought the toll to 1,502 since the United States launched the war in Iraq in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The military said two US troops died yesterday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle. Another soldier was also killed yesterday in Babil province, part of an area known as the “Triangle of Death” because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on US and Iraqi forces.

At least 1,140 Americans have died as a result of hostile action, according to the US Defence Department. The figures include four military civilians.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,364 US military members have died, according to the AP count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, the military said.

The tally is based on Pentagon records and AP reporting from Iraq.