5 US soldiers killed in Iraq bombings

BAGHDAD—Five U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq on Saturday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised bomb in the western city of Ramadi, the U.S. military said on Sunday. The statement gave no details beyond saying the soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Marine Division. Iraqis voted in a constitutional referendum on Saturday, although few in Ramadi took part because of clashes between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Sunni Arab insurgents. Western Anbar province has seen a number of attacks in recent months in which heavy casualties of a similar order have been inflicted on U.S. armored vehicles. U.S. and British commanders have said the know-how to make armor-piercing “shaped charges” has reached Iraqi militants from Iran. The deaths took to at least 1,970 the number of Americans to die in the Iraq war.—Agencies