IRAQ: Six US soldiers were killed in two separate incidents involving attacks on their convoys in Iraq yesterday. Violence yesterday also claimed the lives of two CNN employees.
Three soldiers were killed last night by a roadside bomb attack on a convoy south of Baghdad. Three other soldiers were wounded in the attack near Iskandariya, about 50 km south of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
Earlier yesterday, three other US soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad. At least 517 US soldiers have died since the invasion of Iraq last March, 358 in combat.
The two CNN employees were killed, and another slightly wounded, when their two-car convoy was ambushed in Iraq, the US network said yesterday.
Mr Duraid Isa Mohammed, an Iraqi translator and producer, and Mr Yasser Khatab, an Iraqi driver, were shot to death as they were returning to Baghdad from an assignment in southern Iraq, CNN said in a report.
CNN cameraman Scott McWhinnie, who was riding in a separate lead car that managed to escape the attack, was grazed in the head by a bullet. Four others travelling with Mr McWhinnie were unhurt.
The survivors said they had been attacked by assailants in a rust-coloured Opel near the Baghdad suburb of Mahmoudiya.
"A single gunman, armed with an AK47, was standing upright in the car through the sun roof. He opened fire on the rear of the lead vehicle," CNN said.
The attackers then spun around on the highway, as the second car carrying Mr Mohammed and Mr Khatab was seen leaving the road. The car containing their bodies was later found by Iraqi police. Mr Mohammed and Mr Khatab, who joined CNN a year ago, were shot a number of times.
At least 14 journalists have been killed in Iraq in hostile actions since the US-led attack last year.
Earlier, an unexploded car bomb was discovered close to the coalition headquarters in Baghdad, and was successfully disposed of by US soldiers.
Reporters on the scene said the bomb was believed to be in a vehicle in a car park used by visitors to the coalition compound in the "Green Zone", one of Saddam Hussein's former palace complexes which has been taken over by the US-led military and civilian administration in Baghdad. All roads in the area were sealed off while the bomb was disposed of. The car park is routinely used by media attending press briefings.
On January 18th, a suicide car bomb blast at another entrance to the "Green Zone" killed 25 people and wounded scores.