IRAQ: The US military said yesterday that seven marines had been killed by insurgents in western Iraq, pushing the death toll for Americans since the start of the war past 1,800.
Six marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team-2 of the 2nd Marine Division, were killed in action yesterday in Haditha, 225km (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
A seventh marine was killed yesterday by a car bomb in Hit, 80km (50 miles) southeast of Haditha in the volatile Euphrates river valley. Insurgents posted handbills in Haditha, claiming to have killed 10 US troops and seized some of their weapons.
At least 1,801 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,382 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians.
In other violence, a roadside bomb targeting a US military convoy exploded yesterday at the entrance to a tunnel in central Baghdad, and at least 29 civilians were wounded, officials said.
The blast hit as the convoy was about to enter the tunnel in Bab Shargi, near Tahrir Square, said police Capt Abdul-Hussein Munsif. Two Humvees appeared to have been damaged, he said.
US and Iraqi forces placed a security cordon around the area. The US military had no immediate information on casualties.
An emergency services official said on customary condition of anonymity that 29 wounded civilians were taken to two hospitals.
In Samarra, 97km (60 miles) north of the capital, an explosion about 5am yesterday morning damaged a pipeline used for shipping fuel from the Beiji refinery to a power station in the Baghdad area, police said.
Insurgents have frequently targeted the line to interrupt electricity, already critically low as demand rises in the summer.
The US military said a reporter for the Army Times newspaper embedded with American troops was injured in a suicide car bombing last night in western Iraq near the Syrian border.
US military spokesman Capt Duane Limpert had no details on the extent of injuries to the reporter, and added that troops reported only minor injuries.
As the August 15th deadline neared for finishing Iraq's new constitution, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called for it to protect women's rights, saying it was an important element for the country's success.
The ambassador said the US government is expecting a constitution that would ensure full rights to all Iraqis, regardless of sex, ethnicity or gender. - (AP)