Iraq bomb kills 3 U.S. soldiers, interpreter

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

A military statement gave no further details about Tuesday night's attack in Nineveh province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been waging a crackdown against al Qaeda insurgents.

It brings the U.S. military death toll to 25 so far in June, according to the independent Web site iCasualties.org, which tracks U.S. military casualties.

U.S. troop deaths are up from May when they fell to 19, the lowest monthly total since the 2003 invasion. More than 4,100 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq.

Two U.S. soldiers and two U.S. government employees were among 10 people killed on Tuesday when a bomb exploded at a council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. On Monday, a gunman killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded three as they left a council building southeast of Baghdad.

The U.S. military said violence in Iraq fell to a four-year low in May following crackdowns by U.S. and Iraqi forces on Shi'ite militias in Baghdad and the south of the country, and on al Qaeda in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province.

U.S. officials say Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, is the last major urban stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgents.

Despite the crackdown, security forces have reported frequent shootings and bomb attacks around the city. The head of Mosul city council, Khalid Mahmoud, and his driver were killed in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday, police said.

Late on Tuesday, a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near a police station in Mosul, killing a policeman and a child and wounding 73 people, including seven policemen, police said.

The U.S. military said as many as 90 civilians were wounded in the bombing, which it blamed on al Qaeda.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Catherine Evans)