BAGHDAD -- Fourteen Americans were killed in combat in five attacks, most in Baghdad, in a 48-hour period ending yesterday, the US military announced.
One US soldier has died in the major military operations in Diyala Province, where 300 to 500 fighters for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia are believed to be hiding. That death occurred earlier in the week.
Suicide bombers struck yesterday in northern Iraq and Baghdad. In the area around Hilla, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, an Iraqi-US operation was under way to capture or kill members of the militia linked to the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Most of the US deaths over the past two days were caused by roadside bombs, which were used in three of the five attacks .
These bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, have been the biggest killers of Americans.
The higher casualties are due in part to the higher number of US soldiers in Iraq as part of the Baghdad security plan that started in mid-February, officials said.
The troops are at full strength now and are beginning operations in areas they had been unable to enter. The use of ever-more-powerful roadside bombs has also increased the number of casualties.
"We are now finally operating in all the belts around Baghdad as well as in Baghdad," said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad. "We now have the ability to fight everywhere at once. One of the challenges is that we are now moving operations into areas where we haven't been regularly."
The US military has not said whether any of the attacks in the 48-hour period involved the powerful explosively formed projectiles, which are capable of hurling a solid fist of copper through armored vehicles. That type of bomb has become a regular tool in the arsenal used by Shi'ite and Sunni Arab insurgents.
The deadliest attack occurred yesterday in northeastern Baghdad, when a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle, killing five soldiers, their Iraqi interpreter, and three Iraqi civilians traveling with them. The bomb also wounded a soldier and two Iraqi civilians.
In another attack yesterday, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a military vehicle in Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
On Wednesday, four soldiers were killed in western Baghdad when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle. One soldier was wounded in that attack.
Southwest of Baghdad, two soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
In Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, two Marines died in combat on Wednesday, the military said.
At least three mortars hit the Green Zone, where the US Embassy and the Iraqi government are located, and a mortar killed a civilian in Baghdad. Twenty bodies were found around Baghdad yesterday.
In Diyala Province, outside the area of the US offensive, six civilians were killed by gunmen. In Baquba h , the provincial capital, where the US offensive against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is under way, about 700 women, children, and old men were reportedly making for the area to the north of the city in search of food and water despite the danger from the fighting, Iraqi security forces in Diyala reported.
The military also reported it had mistakenly bombed a house in Diyala, wounding 11 people. The target was a booby-trapped house, but the bomb fell some distance away, on the house of civilians.
The military said it is investigating.
In Suleiman Bek, in a part of northern Iraq where the insurgent attacks have not been as deadly , a suicide bomber drove his car into a compound of houses, a police station, and City Hall, killing at least 17 people, including the mayor and City Council chairman , and wounding 70 people, some severely, the police said.
In Hilla, Iraqi security forces and the US military raided local Shi'ite militia and party headquarters and sites where operatives for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia were thought to be hiding. Hilla, a mostly Shi'ite city, is in Babil Province, which is about 25 percent Sunni Arab.
There have been repeated attacks on predominantly Sunni villages in the province, believed to have been carried out by the Mahdi Army, the militia linked to Sadr. But another Shi'ite militia, the Badr Organization, and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia are also thought to be active in the area.
The Babil Province police commander, General Qais al-Mamorrey, said the operation under way aimed to "fight the militia organizations in north of Babil, especially the Mahdi Army."
"The main problem we face is a great shortage of police and army soldiers and equipment," he said. "We need government support to purge the police force of bad police elements."
He said that about 65 policemen had been removed from the force "after finding proof that they were involved in working for parties or militias."
hour period ending yesterday, the US military announced P.S. KEEP OUR TROOPS IN OUR PRAYERS! I KNOW THAT WE DO IN OUR HOME . Thanks A Bunches catcmo2006
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