Five dead, 18 injured in Iraq violence

Three suicide bombers tried to attack an American military base in the Iraqi of Samarra today and wounded three US soldiers while a car bomb killed five Iraqis in the north of the country.

Two suicide bombers detonated their car bombs outside a US base in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, Major Richard Goldenberg said.

Three Task Force Liberty soldiers sustained non life-threatening wounds, Goldenberg added.

A third militant approached the scene wearing an explosives-packed vest and was shot by soldiers but still managed to set off his bomb, killing himself but causing no other injuries or damage, Goldenberg said.

US and Iraqi security forces quickly cordoned off the area, blocking all vehicle and pedestrian traffic out of apparent fear that further terrorist attacks could be launched against the base.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber injured four Iraqi civilians in an attack in a neighbourhood of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, the US military said.

Meanwhile a car bomb has exploded in northern Iraq killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding 13 others, police said.

The attack happened near the city council offices in Tuz Khormato, a town 55 miles south of Kirkuk, said police.