Seven US soldiers die in Iraq

The US military today announced the deaths of seven more soldiers in Iraq, including four killed by a roadside bomb while they were patrolling western Baghdad, as casualties mount during a month-old security crackdown.

A US official, meanwhile, blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for chlorine bomb attacks that struck villagers in Anbar province earlier this week but said tight Iraqi security measures prevented a high number of casualties.

Three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas struck targets in the rebel stronghold, including the office of a Sunni tribal leader opposed to al Qaida.

The attacks killed at least two people and injured 350 Iraqi civilians and seven US troops, the US military said yesterday.

US military spokesman Mark Fox said at least one of the attackers detonated his explosives after he was unable to get past an Iraqi police checkpoint in Amiriyah.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called the attacks “immoral.”

In violence today, gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying civilians north-east of Baghdad, killing seven men and wounding four others, police said. The attack occurred in Hibhib, just east of Baqouba.

A roadside bomb also hit an Iraqi police convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding five, authorities said.