Roadside bombs kill many in Iraq

Baghdad: Roadside bombs killed two US soldiers and at least nine Iraqis on Monday in Baghdad and surrounding areas, officials said.

The Americans died in a blast near a highway in the predominantly Shiite New Baghdad district, Iraqi police said. The area was the site of fierce clashes between US-Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army militia before a ceasefire by anti-US cleric Moqtada Al Sadr.

Another US soldier was wounded in the attack in eastern Baghdad, the US military said.

The deadliest attack yesterday was against an Iraqi police patrol vehicle in Mahaweel, 60km south of Baghdad that killed four policemen and three civilian bystanders, according to Iraqi police.

Another roadside bomb on Palestine Street, a major thoroughfare in Baghdad, killed two Iraqis - a soldier and a civilian - and wounded seven others, said Iraqi officials.