BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military announced on Wednesday the deaths of three more soldiers in a bomb attack in north Iraq, as Baghdad said the four Americans killed in a deadly blast in the capital were not the target.
The announcement came as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave Shiite fighters in the southern oil-rich province of Maysan a seven-day deadline to surrender.
Three US soldiers and their interpreter were killed in a bomb attack in the northern province of Nineveh late Tuesday, a US military statement said, without specifying the exact location nor giving further details.
The attack came just hours after a deadly blast on Tuesday at the district advisory council offices in Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City that killed four Americans and an Italian of Iraqi origin.
The dead Americans were two soldiers and two civilians, one working for the State Department and the other for the Defence Department. The Italian also worked for the Defence Department.
An Iraqi security official said six Iraqis were also killed in the blast in the area that is home to supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and which came ahead of an election to nominate new members to the council.
However, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover said no Iraqis were killed.
The military said the attack was carried out by Special Group extremists, a term the military uses to describe Shiite fighters they allege are funded, armed or trained by Iranian-linked groups.
Stover said three people had so far been detained for their suspected roles in the bombing and they had "tested positive for explosives residue."
But Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the Americans were not the target of the Sadr City bombing.
"Initial reports indicate that the multinational forces were not the target but members of the council itself. Americans just happened to be there by chance," he said. "There was a plan to bomb the council even before."
Some council members from Sadr's movement had recently resigned from the civic body, sparking tension with other associates.
On Tuesday, the head of the Sadr movement in eastern Baghdad, Sheikh Salman Fraiji, said the bombing was a "conspiracy of those council members who have been with the Americans since our representatives left the council.
"They want to blame the Sadrists."
An AFP reporter in Sadr City said there was a strong presence of US troops around the council office on Wednesday, while Iraqi soldiers were deployed extensively in the district's southern section, where the office is located.
On Monday, two more US soldiers were killed in small arms fire after a meeting at a local council office in the town of Madain, south of Baghdad.
The US military has lost seven soldiers since Monday and its overall death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion has climbed to 4,109, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org.
Already this month, 25 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq. This is up from May's figure of 19, the lowest monthly toll since the invasion, according to the website.
Meanwhile, Askari said an amnesty had came into effect from 10:00 am (0700 GMT) for Shiite militiamen in Maysan province amid an ongoing crackdown.
The amnesty was "for those who want to surrender themselves but not for those who have the blood of Iraqis on their hands."
Before the operation was launched in Maysan on June 19, Maliki had given a four-day deadline for militants there to surrender their weapons and themselves.
Askari said the deadline was extended because many gunmen had told local tribal chiefs they wanted to surrender but were "afraid of the punishment."
However, most of 500 wanted men have fled the area.
In other attacks in Iraq on Wednesday, at least four people were killed, including three who died in a car bombing in central Baghdad, police said.
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