BAGHDAD — Six U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when a roadside bomb detonated in a western section of the capital and a seventh American soldier was slain by a blast in the southern city of Diwaniya, the military announced Sunday.
The names of the soldiers, who died Saturday, were not immediately released. The deaths brought to 3,422 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org. Seventy-one have been killed since the beginning of this month.
The military said the six soldiers killed in Baghdad had been working over the last week to find weapons caches and had recovered grenades, small arms, ammunition and bomb-making material. Their unit also discovered a house where militants had tortured Iraqi civilians, the military said.
It is the second time this month that six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single blast. On May 6, a Russian photographer and six Americans were killed in a roadside bombing as they traveled between Baghdad and Baqubah.
In the northern city of Irbil, a South Korean soldier was found dead Saturday in a military base barbershop. The 27-year-old first lieutenant, who had been shot, was identified only by his family name Oh, according to Multinational Forces-Iraq. South Korea has about 1,200 troops in Irbil on a reconstruction mission.
No new information emerged Sunday regarding the fate of three soldiers missing since they were captured May 12 in an ambush south of Baghdad, but military officials said the search continued with undiminished intensity.
On a different front, two of Iraq's most powerful politicians, President Jalal Talabani and Shiite Muslim political leader Abdelaziz Hakim, suffered worsening medical conditions.
Talabani flew to the United States on Sunday for a visit that was expected to include a medical checkup. The trip came nearly three months after he was rushed to a Jordanian hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration caused by lung and sinus infections.
"I will go to the USA and stay nearly three weeks to lose weight and have some rest and relaxation ... away from meetings and work," Talabani, a 73-year-old Sunni Kurd, said before boarding a plane in the city of Sulaymaniya, 175 miles northeast of Baghdad.
