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Bomb Kills Three U.S. Soldiers in Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing three American soldiers, the U.S. military said. "Three Task Force Ironhorse soldiers were killed when the vehicle they were in was struck by an improvised explosive device," the military said in a statement. The attack occurred at about 9 a.m. as the soldiers traveled in a convoy near Samarra, a town north of Baghdad where insurgents have often launched attacks on U.S. troops. The soldiers' names were withheld pending notification of next of kin. Also Wednesday, U.S. helicopter gunships backed an artillery bombardment aimed at insurgents in southwest Baghdad, as troops raided homes and arrested a Sunni sheik said to be close to the most wanted man in Iraq. Ghazi Hanash, leader of al-Ta'ee tribe based around the northern city of Mosul, was arrested Tuesday at his apartment in Baghdad along with a son and two aides, a cousin, Ghassan Hamadi, said from the sheik's residence in Mosul. Hanash is said to be close to former Vice President Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who U.S. commanders say could be organizing the anti-American resistance. Al-Douri - No. 6 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis - is the most senior official of 13 who have escaped custody. In northern Iraq, a car bomb exploded outside the office of the Interior Ministry in Irbil, near Kirkuk, and several people were killed or injured, said Kamil Kerkukly, an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Irbil houses the Kurdish parliament. Under U.S.-led aerial protection, Iraqi Kurds, ethnically distinct from the majority Arabs, have ruled an autonomous Switzerland-sized stretch of northern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War more than a decade ago. Also Wednesday, a minibus detonated a roadside bomb in a Baghdad traffic tunnel, killing one civilian and wounding two others, Iraqi police said. The bomb exploded in the Shurta tunnel around noon, when roads fill as residents go home for lunch. Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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