Gunmen launched a brazen coordinated attack on a U.S. combat post Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American soldiers. Two U.S. soldiers died and 17 injured, the military said. The attack started with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement.
According to the AP, residents said American soldiers fought with the attackers after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base near Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad. For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced Monday that a U.S. Marine died two days earlier during combat operations in Anbar province.
A string of bombings killed 23 people Monday in the Baghdad area in another blow to the U.S.-led security crackdown. Five people were killed and 11 were injured when a bomb went off on a public bus headed for the mostly Shiite area of Karradah in central Baghdad, police reported.
A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Shiite area of Zafraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, injuring two other people, including a civilian, police said.
Elsewhere in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded among auto repair shops, killing two and injuring two, police said. A car bomb in Ramadi, about 90 miles west of Baghdad, killed at least nine bystanders congregated at a police checkpoint in the aftermath of a failed suicide attack. In Duluiyah, a Sunni area about 45 miles north of Baghdad, at least four were killed when a bomb-rigged car exploded.
