Five US soldiers die in Iraq bombing

Five US Army soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb during Iraq’s constitutional referendum, the military said today.

The explosion hit a vehicle the five were riding in as their combat operation took place in the mostly Sunni Arab city of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, where few Iraqis were believed to have voted in the referendum, the military said.

Though insurgent attacks were few in most of the country on voting day, Ramadi - a stronghold for insurgents – saw violence. Six mortar rounds hit the Hall of Sports, a facility being used as a voting centre, then clashes erupted between gunmen and US troops in the city’s centre. It was not known if the five soldiers’ deaths were connected to this incident.

The US military had no immediate information about whether the attack occurred near a polling station in Ramadi, or was related to the fighting that broke out in the city. But the primary role the US military played across Iraq during the voting was to support Iraqi security forces that were guarding polling stations.

The five soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were not identified pending notification of their relatives.

At least 1,975 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.