BAGHDAD — Two U.S. soldiers were killed and three were injured in a shootout Monday outside a local council building southeast of Baghdad, the military said.
News of the attack came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised to extend a military crackdown to Diyala province, north and east of the capital, after at least 25 people were killed and scores injured there Sunday in a suicide bombing and mortar fire.
A gunman ambushed the soldiers and their interpreter, who was wounded in the exchange, as they left the Madaen municipal building, the U.S. military said in a statement.
The Interior Ministry in Baghdad identified the gunman as a local official and said he emerged from the building with the Americans, pulled a Kalashnikov assault rifle from the trunk of his car and sprayed them with bullets. The man's colleagues sought cover as the Americans returned fire and killed him, according to the ministry, which oversees the police.
But witnesses said the assailant was a former council member who joined the Sunni Muslim insurgency after he was ousted from his job in sectarian fighting in 2006.
"He was sitting in his vehicle right in front of the municipal headquarters and opened fire with a Kalashnikov on the Americans as they were leaving the building," said the owner of a nearby farm equipment store, who asked to be identified by a traditional nickname, Abu Ali. "Other Americans immediately opened fire on [the man] in his car, and he was killed instantly."
Khalid Dulaimi was in his grocery store across the street from the building when gunshots rang out. "I heard the shooting, and people started scrambling," he said.
U.S. forces sealed off the area, and military helicopters swooped in to pick up the wounded, police and witnesses said.
Maj. John Hall, a U.S. military spokesman, said initial reports indicated one "enemy" had been killed in addition to the U.S. casualties, but provided no further details.
At least 4,104 U.S. troops have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org.
Madaen, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, is in a region frequented by Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremists that became known as the "triangle of death."
Although the number of attacks nationwide has dropped to a level last seen in 2004, U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that militants remain capable of inflicting casualties.
