Baghdad blast kills 2 U.S. soldiers, 3 other U.S. government personnel
The bomb explodes during a meeting with local Iraqi leaders. Three Iraqi civilians are also killed. It is the second straight day Americans meeting with local officials are targeted.
BAGHDAD -- Two American soldiers and three U.S. government employees were killed when a bomb exploded this morning inside a local council building in the Baghdad district of Sadr City, U.S. officials said.
At least two of the slain civilian employees were Americans, said Mirembe Nantongo, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. One worked for the State Department and the other for the Department of Defense. Officials were still determining the nationality of a second Defense Department employee, Nantongo said.
The blast also killed three Iraqi civilians and injured seven others, according to Iraqi security officials. One U.S. soldier was also wounded, the military said.
It was the second time in as many days that Americans were targeted as they met with local government officials. Such encounters have become a near-daily occurrence across Iraq as U.S. forces attempt to rebuild local institutions and kick-start local economies in areas formerly controlled by militants.
On Monday, a gunman ambushed U.S. soldiers as they left the municipal building in Madaen, about 15 miles southeast of the capital, killing two of them and injuring three others. A local interpreter was also injured in that attack.
Iraqi officials and witnesses said the shooter was a current or former council member in the town, which has long been a flash point for Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremist violence.
Iraqi officials said they did not know who was responsible for the Sadr City explosion. The U.S. military blamed breakaway factions of populist Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, groups it alleges are supported by Iran. Tehran has denied the charge.
The military said its soldiers caught a suspect fleeing the scene who later tested positive for explosive residue.
The bomb was planted outside the office of the district advisory council's deputy leader, who was wounded in the blast, Sadr City police and witnesses said. It detonated as the Americans entered the room, they said.
A council member, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said he was doing paperwork next door when the explosion occurred.
"We ran next door immediately," he said. "I saw the Americans come out with two stretchers with their colleagues' bloodied and mangled bodies. One stretcher had flesh dangling from it."
Sadr City was the focus of intense clashes earlier this year pitting U.S. and Iraqi forces against Sadr's militia.
The fighting subsided after the main Shiite factions in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government negotiated a truce with Sadr's representatives, paving the way for Iraqi forces to deploy throughout Sadr City, a vast district home to some 2.5 million people. But U.S. officers say breakaway factions of Sadr's militia remain active there and in other Shiite-dominated parts of the capital.
alexandra.zavis@latimes.com
Staff writer Raheem Salman and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.
