Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names.

Suicide Car Bomb Brings Down Major Highway Overpass South of Baghdad, Trapping U.S. Soldiers

By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent

June 10, 2007, 2:13 PM ET

MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq (AP) -- 

An apparent suicide car bomber took aim at a U.S. convoy carrying demolition experts on Sunday, collapsing a major highway overpass south of Baghdad and trapping American soldiers in the rubble.

The vehicle detonated beside a support pillar, bringing down an Army checkpoint and a tent that had been on the collapsing span, dubbed "Checkpoint 20" by the U.S. military. The overpass, one of two crossing over Iraq's main north-south highway in the region, appeared to be closed to all but military traffic at the time.

A U.S. Army quick reaction force and the staff of Armor Group International, a private security firm that was in charge of the passing convoy, worked for some 45 minutes to pull trapped men from the rubble about six miles east of Mahmoudiya.

There appeared to be several casualties, including an Iraqi interpreter who was wounded, according to Donald Campbell, an official with the security firm who was at the scene.

The attack was witnessed by an Associated Press reporter and a photographer who were in the approaching convoy.

In eastern Baghdad, a U.S. helicopter fired flares on a crowd on a square, hours after clashes between American troops and Shi'i militia that left at least five people dead. The military said the flares were part of an automatic self-defense system.

Fighting broke out in the predominantly Shi'i Fidhiliyah area on the Baghdad's outskirts late Friday after a U.S. military convoy came under attack outside the local offices of cleric  Muqtada al-Sadr.

Shaikh Mohammed al-Hilfi, an al-Sadr representative from the office, said the clashes broke out after a raid on the office, which doubles as a mosque. The military did not confirm the raid.

He said seven people were killed and 21 wounded, while local police officials put the casualty figure at five killed and 19 wounded. The officials said those killed were Iraqis and included bystanders caught in the crossfire, while 16 other men were detained.

Hundreds of men chanted as they carried the wooden coffins draped in Iraqi flags of four people reportedly killed in the violence.

Associated Press Television video footage shot early Sunday showed a low-flying Apache helicopter firing flares as several hundred people, including teenagers and children, gathered around a devastated Humvee below.

Al-Hilfi accused the Americans of using the helicopter flares to disperse the crowd so they could recover the charred Humvee.

But Garver said the flares were fired automatically as part of a self-defense system for the helicopters after several recent deadly attacks against the aircraft.

"Those are not launched by the crew," he said. "When the helicopter receives a signal that it is being targeted by a radar, it launches those flares in self-defense against a perceived threat."

He said the flares, which are designed to divert heat-seeking missiles and other anti-aircraft weapons, usually burn out before they hit the ground but these were still burning because the helicopter was flying at low altitude.

A roadside bomb killed a U.S. airman and wounded another Sunday in southern Iraq, the military said. The death raised to at least 3,504 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

A suicide explosion on the outskirts of Tikrit at a police building killed 10 people, most of them officers, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Tikrit is 80 miles north of Baghdad.

The attacker detonated his payload after smashing into a blast wall, flattening a small reception building and damaging the main two-story building 20 yards away, the officer said.

The blast was the deadliest of a series of attacks and other violence that killed at least 26 people, many targeting Iraqi police.

---

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.