Bombs kill 2 soldiers in Iraq

By The Associated Press

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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Roadside bombs killed two U.S. soldiers in separate attacks yesterday. One of the explosions, in a busy Baghdad shopping area, also killed two Iraqi children.

A bomb planted beside a road in Baghdad killed the two children and an American soldier and wounded 14 people, said Sgt. Patrick Compton of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division. Wounded were five American soldiers, their Iraqi interpreter and eight members of the Iraqi civil-defense corps.

The explosion, east of the Baghdad district of Karrada, occurred shortly after 10:30 a.m., as the streets were filled with people shopping or running errands, according to U.S. soldiers who, upon arriving on the scene, treated the wounded and searched for more bombs.

"It was a bad one," Compton said. "It's a real densely populated area of town."

Attackers detonated a second roadside bomb later yesterday as a U.S. convoy was traveling near Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, killing an American soldier and wounding three others.

The deaths bring to 473 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq on March 20, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 325 died as a result of hostile action.

On or since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 335 U.S. soldiers have died, 210 as a result of hostile action.

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