Three US soldiers, five Iraqis, killed by insurgents

Three US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, and five Iraqis died in other insurgent attacks today.

Meanwhile, US aircraft kept up their attacks on militant safe houses near the Syrian border, apparently killing a senior al Qaida in Iraq figure who was using religious courts to try Iraqis who supported coalition forces, the military said.

Two US Army soldiers were killed yesterday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, while another roadside bomb and small arms fire struck an Army patrol 37 miles north of Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding four, the military said today.

Also in Baghdad today, a suicide attacker rammed his car into an American military convoy in Karada, a commercial and residential district, killing one Iraqi passer-by, wounding nine others and damaging two parked cars, said Capt. Mohammed Abdul Ghani.

Elsewhere today, three Iraqis were killed in insurgent attacks.