3 U.S. troops killed, 31 hurt in Baghdad attacks

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Rockets or mortars slammed into the U.S.-protected Green Zone and a military base elsewhere in Baghdad yesterday, killing three American soldiers and wounding 31, an official said.

The attacks occurred as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shi'ite militants in Sadr City in some of the fiercest fighting since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire a week ago. At least 16 Iraqi civilians were killed in the fighting, hospital officials said.

A military official said two U.S. troops died and 17 were wounded in the attack on the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters.

Another American service member was killed and 14 were wounded in the attack on a base in the southeastern Baghdad area of Rustamiyah, the official said.

The U.S. military said separately that an American soldier was killed yesterday in a roadside bombing in the volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad.

The deaths raised the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003 to at least 4,017, according to the Associated Press.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the Baghdad attacks, but U.S. commanders have blamed what they call Iranian-backed rogue militia groups for launching missiles.

The strikes occurred despite a strong push by the U.S. military to prevent militants from using suspected launching sites on the southern edge of Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Hospital officials said at least 16 civilians were killed and nearly 100 wounded as fierce fighting erupted early yesterday in Sadr City after Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers and attack helicopters tried to advance deeper into the enclave of about 2.5 million people.

American helicopters also fired Hellfire missiles that destroyed a vehicle and killed nine militants who were attacking Iraqi security forces rocket-propelled grenades in the area, the military said.

Violence surged and tensions rose in Shi'ite areas despite Sheik al-Sadr's March 30 cease-fire order, which eased nearly a week of fighting in Baghdad, Basra and other cities in the Shi'ite south. The cleric stopped short of asking his fighters to surrender their weapons, and sporadic clashes have continued.