5 US soldiers killed in Baghdad
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—A suicide bomber killed five American soldiers on a foot patrol Monday after detonating his explosives vest in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said, the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in more than a month.
Four of the soldiers died at the scene and the fifth died later from wounds, the military said in a statement. The blast also wounded three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter, the military said. Military spokesman Maj. Mark Cheadle said that “it was reported to us as a suicide bomber.” An Iraqi police officer at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said two civilians also were killed and another eight wounded in the attack.
It was the deadliest attack since Jan. 28, when five U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul. Monday’s deaths brought the number to 3,979 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber on Monday killed the head of a local group of Sunni fighters northeast of Baghdad who had turned against al-Qaida insurgents, the leader’s brother and a provincial police official said.
Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi, his 5-year-old niece, a 24-year cousin and a security guard were killed in the blast in Diyala province, where violence has persisted despite drops in other parts of Iraq. Duraid Mahmoud, the sheik’s brother, told The Associated Press he witnessed the attack inside his brother’s home. A provincial police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, confirmed the attack.
The woman, wearing an explosives belt, entered al-Karkhi’s home in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, 13 miles east of Baqouba. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But al-Qaida in Iraq has been targeting fellow Sunni Arabs who have taken up arms against the militants and joined the so-called awakening councils like the one al-Karkhi led. The councils are made up of U.S.-backed former insurgents who have risen up against al-Qaida’s brutality and strict Islamic codes of conduct it was trying to impose on local populations.
The U.S. military said it was looking into the incident but did not immediately have any details. Mahmoud said the bomber had visited the sheik’s house on Sunday, claiming that her husband had been kidnapped and asking for help. Mahmoud said his brother told the woman to return Monday.
“She came back this morning and nobody checked her. She had an appointment with the sheik and the guards told her to go and knock on his door,” Mahmoud said. The woman was ushered into the house and blew herself up once she got close to the sheik, he said, adding that the sheik’s 5-year-old niece and a security guard were also killed. One of the men wounded in the attack — the son of a cousin of the sheik — later died at the hospital, according to a hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Hours after the attack, mourners packed al-Karkhi’s home, weeping over the sheik’s body, which had been wrapped in a blue blanket and placed in a black, wooden coffin. Female suicide bombers have been involved in at least 19 attacks or attempted attacks since the war began, including the grisly bombings of two pet markets in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people on Feb. 1.