Dozens of Iraqis killed by rockets, bomb

[JoFerret]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4016289,00.html

BAGHDAD (AP) - Volleys of rockets struck the capital's crowded Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City on Saturday, hitting a busy market, smashing into a home and killing at least seven Iraqis. Outside Baghdad, insurgents rocketed a U.S. military base, killing five soldiers.

Besides the deaths in the Sadr City rocket strikes, at least 26 Iraqis were reported killed in a bombing at Tikrit, clashes between Polish troops and Shiite militiamen in Karbala, U.S. raids overnight in Sadr City, and a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.

Five American solders were killed around dawn when two rockets fired from a truck hit the U.S. base at Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, Air Force Lt. Col. Sam Hudspath said. U.S. helicopter gunships then destroyed the truck, the military said.

Six soldiers were wounded in the attack, three of them critically, the military said.

The deaths, along with the combat death of a Marine announced Saturday, brought to 107 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the beginning of April. Since the U.S.-led invasion last year, 715 American military personnel have died in Iraq.

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