Insurgent Attacks Kill 3 Troops in Iraq

BAGHDAD —  Two U.S. Army soldiers and a Marine have been killed in separate attacks involving roadside bombs and gunfire in Iraq, the military said Thursday.

A bomb exploded Thursday morning near Baqubah, about 30 miles northeast of the capital, killing one soldier and wounding two. The soldiers had arrived after Iraqi civil defense forces notified them that a homemade bomb had been found.

In the afternoon, insurgents attacked a convoy near Fallouja, about 35 miles west of the capital, killing one Marine and injuring two with a roadside bomb, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. Televised footage showed an empty Humvee in flames. An Iraqi civilian motorist was killed in the crossfire.

An Army spokesman also said insurgents had killed a soldier and wounded another in a gun battle Wednesday near Taji, just north of Baghdad. U.S. soldiers returned fire and killed three attackers.

Nearly 600 U.S. troops have died since the Iraq war began.

About 350 U.S.-trained Iraqi police also have been killed in the last year, the military said Thursday, and rebel attacks are likely to increase before the Coalition Provisional Authority hands over sovereignty June 30. U.S. and Iraqi officials expect Iraqi and foreign fighters to try to demonstrate that a fledgling Iraqi government cannot control the country.

About 200,000 Iraqis are serving in the security forces, which include an army, police, border guards and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

The Iraqi service personnel, who are seen by guerrillas as collaborators of the U.S.-led occupation, often make easier targets because they are not as well armed and protected as the American troops who sometimes accompany them on patrol.

A senior official said the coalition had formed an Iraqi Defense Ministry that would report to L. Paul Bremer III, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, and would include a counter-terrorism unit.

Also Thursday, Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Beijing with Seyyid Mohammed Bahr Uloom, the head of the Governing Council, to discuss Iraq’s political situation and reconstruction efforts. Uloom thanked Hu for writing off part of Iraq’s debt and for Beijing’s pledge of $25 million for rebuilding.

China opposed the U.S. war in Iraq and has no plans to send troops but is eager to be involved commercially in its reconstruction.