BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers and three U.S. government employees were killed Tuesday when a bomb exploded in a local council building in a Shiite Muslim district of the capital, officials said.
A roadside bombing killed three more American soldiers and an interpreter late Tuesday in Nineveh province, the military announced today. No details were given.
The attack in Sadr City, the second aimed at a political meeting in two days, struck a blow at U.S. efforts to promote good governance, improve services and court allies after weeks of fighting in the Baghdad bastion of anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr.
The U.S. military blamed breakaway factions of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, groups it alleges are supported by Iran. Tehran has denied the charge.
The explosion occurred hours before a vote to replace Abdul Hassan Jbara as chairman of the Sadr City District Advisory Council.
Jbara, who is accused by colleagues of having ties to militias, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The bomb was planted outside the office of his deputy and would-be successor, Hassan Shamma, said Iraqi police and council members who were there. It detonated as U.S. soldiers and civilian advisors entered the room, they said.
Two of the civilians killed were Americans, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo. They included Steven Farley, a State Department employee from Guthrie, Okla., and a Department of Defense employee whose identity was not disclosed. An Italian interpreter of Iraqi descent also was killed, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry.
Iraqi security officials said at least one Iraqi civilian died and four were injured in the blast. The U.S. military said that it was not aware of any Iraqis killed, but that at least one U.S. soldier and two Iraqi council members were wounded.
Shamma suffered a leg injury, said Sadr City Mayor Hassan Karim, who was visiting his colleagues in the hospital when he spoke to The Times.
Ahmed Hassan, the council spokesman, was walking toward Shamma's office when the explosion blew him across the hallway.
"The blast was massive," he said. "There was smoke everywhere and shards of glass."
A council member who had rushed to help said, "I saw the Americans come out with two stretchers with their colleagues' bloodied and mangled bodies." He requested anonymity for security reasons.
