US death toll in Iraq tops 4,000

The US death toll in Iraq has topped 4,000 after a roadside bomb killed four soldiers in Baghdad.

The grim milestone in the five-year-long conflict came last night after a day when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

Rockets and mortars pounded the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.

The attacks on the Green Zone probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups and were the most sustained assault in months against the nerve centre of the US mission.

The soldiers who died were on patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10pm last night in southern Baghdad, the US military said.

Another soldier was wounded in the attack, which came just days after the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of relatives.

Lieutenant Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families who have lost a loved one in Iraq, saying each death is “equally tragic”.

“There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

The deadliest attack of yesterday was in Mosul when a suicide driver slammed his vehicle through a security checkpoint in a hail of gunfire and detonated his explosives in front of an Iraqi headquarters building, killing 13 Iraqi soldiers and injuring 42 other people, police said.

Iraqi guards opened fire on the vehicle but could not stop it because the windshield had been bullet-proofed, said an Iraqi army officer.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.

Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city about 225 miles north west of Baghdad, has been described as the last major urban area where the Sunni extremist al-Qaida group maintains a significant presence.

In Baghdad, rockets and mortars began slamming into the Green Zone around sunrise yesterday, and scattered attacks persisted throughout the day, sending plumes of smoke rising over the heavily guarded district in the heart of the capital.

A US public address system in the Green Zone warned people to “duck and cover” and to stay away from windows.

At least five people were injured in the Green Zone, a US Embassy statement said, without specifying nationalities.

The zone includes the US and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information, said those injured included an American and four third-country nationals, meaning they were not American, British or Iraqi.

Iraqi police said 10 civilians were killed and more than 20 were injured in rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern Baghdad – some of them probably due to misfired rounds.