Bridge bomb traps US troops

Iraq: A car bomb exploded on a bridge often used by US forces south of Baghdad yesterday causing it to collapse, possibly trapping…

Iraq:A car bomb exploded on a bridge often used by US forces south of Baghdad yesterday causing it to collapse, possibly trapping some US soldiers, police said.

A US military spokeswoman said there were reports of wounded in the incident but no other information was immediately available. The attack took place near al-Iskandariya, 40km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.

A suicide truck bomb killed 14 policemen and wounded 42 at a police station north of Baghdad yesterday, police said.

They said the bomb largely destroyed the station in the village of Albu-Ajeel in Salahaddin province. Many police were initially trapped under rubble, including one officer who called for help on his mobile phone.

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Among the dead were five officers, including two colonels, police in the nearby provincial capital Tikrit said.

Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda and other militant groups have stepped up attacks on Iraq's security forces in recent weeks, seeking to undermine a four-month-old US-backed security plan in the Baghdad region.

The top US officer in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said the crackdown would only get into full swing in the "next week or so" with the arrival of the last of five additional US brigades that will bring the total number of US reinforcements in Iraq to 28,000.

- (Reuters)