Bomb Kills 4 GIs, Interpreter in Iraq

In violence around Iraq, clashes broke out in the Sunni Arab city of Ramadi — an insurgent stronghold and the capital of western Anbar province. Ramadi hospital reported at least one Iraqi was killed when his car was hit by a mortar.

Iraqi police said four officers were killed and three wounded in a mortar attack apparently targeting a U.S. base in nearby Fallujah.

Four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It had earlier said a U.S. sailor died Wednesday in Anbar province.

The five deaths raised to at least 2,455 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Gunmen stopped a minibus in southwestern Baghdad and killed all eight Iraqis on board — a group of car mechanics and the driver. And a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in northern Baghdad's Waziriya neighborhood, killing three police officers and five bystanders.

In Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, where most of Britain's 8,000 soldiers are based, police chief Gen. Hassan Swadi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when his convoy hit a roadside bomb, police spokesman Karim al-Zeidi said. Their were no casualties.

- LINK