M A I N   N E W S

Seven US soldiers, 39 Iraqis killed

An Iraqi woman soothes her 12-year-old wounded daughter Hajer Ayid in a Baghdad hospital on Saturday. Ayid was injured in an incident involving US troops and forces of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Baghdad suburb of Al Sadr City. Three sisters were burned when their house, which was in the area of a firefight, caught fire. — Reuters photo

Baghdad, April 24
Seven US soldiers and 39 Iraqis were killed today and 70 persons wounded in a spate of explosions and violent clashes between insurgents and troops from the US-led coalition.

The incidents occurred both in the Sunni Muslim north of the country and in Shiite-dominated areas, including the volatile Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where explosions killed 14 Iraqis and wounded 36 more, half of them critically.

At the same time, the police seized a truckload of explosives and arrested three Iraqis suspected in a series of suicide attacks in British-occupied southern Iraq that had killed 74 persons on Wednesday.

In Taji, just north of Baghdad, five US soldiers were killed and six wounded when a rocket was fired at their base at dawn, a military spokeswoman said.

Another two US soldiers were killed and one wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy near the southern city of Kut, the police said.

In another incident, four Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped car exploded near a US military base in the northern city of Tikrit.

In Sadr City, where wanted militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr draws much of his support, four separate explosions killed at least 14 persons and wounded 36, according to hospital staff.

In Najaf, one of the holy cities, an Iraqi civilian was burnt alive in his vehicle after it came under fire near a coalition base today, according to hospital sources.

Near Karbala, another Shiite holy city, five insurgents who were preparing an ambush were killed by a Polish patrol today, a coalition spokesman said. And in Fallujah, a Sunni-stronghold under siege by US Marines, a two-year-old boy was killed when shells and bullets hit his family's house. — AFP