3 US Troops Killed, One Wounded; Judge, Police Killed in North

Reuters reports Guerrillas near Samarra detonated a powerful roadside bomb at a passing US military vehicle, destroying it and killing the three US troops within. In the city of Irbil, in the Kurdish north, a car bomb was detonated by its driver at the entrance to the Interior Ministry building, killing 2 policemen and a 13 year old girl and wounding 100; the driver was also killed. The bombings came in the wake of a major US military action in Baghdad itself, the explosions of which were heard throughout the city on Tuesday.

Luke Harding of the Guardian reports that guerrillas in Mosul fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of 4 Humvees that were guarding currency as it was being taken to a bank. They wounded one US soldier.

Also in Mosul, gunmen in a car shot Judge Yusuf Khurshid [thus az-Zaman; most reports gave the name as "Khosh"] six times in the back. He was investigating Baathist crimes. Another judge engaged in a similar investigation was shot about a month ago. Az-Zaman says he was a Kurd. (Some newswires said he was Turkmen, but both forms of his name as given are more likely to be Kurdish.) Kurds were among the main victims of Baath brutality. Another report, noted in az-Zaman, said that 611 Iraqi policemen have been assassinated since May 1.

The military campaign against the guerrillas continued apace on Monday, with a round-up of guerrillas in Baquba, including a number of Sunni Arab fundamentalists who appear to have made common cause with Baath remnants.