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Mar 22, 2008 9:23 pm US/Eastern
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Roadside Bomb Kills 3 U.S. Soldiers In Baghdad
U.S. Air Strike Kills 6 Allied Sunni Fighters
BAGHDAD (CBS News) ―
Three U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing, the military said, bringing the American death toll since the war's start five years ago closer to 4,000.
Two of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers died when the bomb struck their vehicle during a patrol, according to a statement issued by the military. The third died later of wounds suffered in the attack.
The statement did not provide any other details about the location. The soldiers' identities were not released because relatives had not yet been notified.
The deaths have pushed the number of American dead in the war to 3,996,a grim milestone as the Iraq War goes into its sixth year.
Meanwhile, a U.S. air strike struck checkpoints manned by U.S.-allied Sunni fighters north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing six guards and wounding two, Iraqi police said.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported friendly fire incident in Samarra.
A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said the six members of the so-called awakening council were killed and two others were wounded when an air strike hit two checkpoints about 100 yards apart.
The air strikes came some two hours after U.S. soldiers stopped at the two checkpoints to meet with the Sunni fighters, according to a local leader for the so-called awakening council.
"They asked us general questions like: have you gotten your IDs and do you need anything and then they left," Sabbar al-Bazi told The Associated Press. "Two hours later, after I had gone home, I heard two explosions, probably caused by two missiles, and machine-gun fire from a helicopter."
Gravel around the checkpoints was covered in body parts and bloody clothing. Associated Press photographs of the scene showed awakening council members loading the remains of the guards into pickup trucks at dawn.
U.S.-funded awakening councils, which first sprung up in Anbar province and spread to Baghdad and surrounding areas, are composed of mostly Sunni fighters who turned against al Qaeda in Iraq and joined forces with the Americans.
The U.S. command credits those groups, a cease-fire by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and the addition of an extra 30,000 American troops with a drastic drop in violence nationwide.
However, as told in this video produced by GuardianFilms for Britain's Channel 4, thousands of Iraqis employed at $10 a day by the U.S. to take on insurgents as part of awakening councils are going on strike because they haven't been paid.
Sunni men in Diyala province said they have been used by the Americans "to do their dirty work" in battling al Qaeda in Iraq fighters, for which American and Iraqi politicians have claimed political success.
The men, who say they are excluded from jobs in the police and army by the Shia government, feel abandoned by the U.S. and showed their discontent by staging a strike.
Comments from dozens of awakening councils across the country showed that a majority had not been paid, and are considering a nationwide, coordinated strike.
U.S. Army Captain Robert Gable told the filmmakers, "If they quit, then it appears that the public is quitting with them, and then it's all reliant on the government of Iraq to provide security. That is something that we hope does not happen."
Al Sadr Followers In Power Struggle
Tensions between rival Shiite militia factions loosely associated with al-Sadr's movement have been on the rise amid a violent struggle for power in the oil-rich south.
U.S. officials have been careful to avoid accusing the young cleric of any role in recent fighting but have cracked down on his followers in volatile cities south of Baghdad and in the capital itself.
The U.S. military officials also said insurgents had used mortars to attack a military outpost in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, on Saturday but no casualties were reported.
On Friday, U.S. and Iraqi troops clashed with Shiite gunmen in southwestern Baghdad.
The U.S. command said American helicopters fired a Hellfire missile and a 30 mm cannon at gunmen who had attacked troops with mortars or rockets. Six of the gunmen were killed and three others detained, the military said.
Al-Sadr proclaimed a cease-fire last August and extended it indefinitely last month. But Al-Sadr's supporters have complained the Shiite-led government has used the cease-fire to accelerate a crackdown against their movement in the capital and the Shiite heartland to the south.
The firebrand cleric, who led two uprisings against U.S.-led forces in 2004, has authorized his followers to defend themselves if attacked.
In other violence Saturday, a bomb exploded on a minibus in a predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 1 passenger and wounding eight others, including a woman, police said.
A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol also killed one passer-by and wounded seven other people, including five officers, in the northern city of Kirkuk, according to police Col. Burhan Tayyeb.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)