Bomb in Qaeda bastion in Iraq kills 3 U.S. troops

By Waleed Ibrahim and Khalid al-Ansary

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in a region of northern Iraq where U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling al Qaeda, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

The attack, which brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq this week to seven, suggests al Qaeda remains dangerous in the northern province of Nineveh and its capital, Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

A spokesman said U.S. forces did not know exactly who was responsible for Tuesday night's attack in Nineveh, but they suspected al Qaeda.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been conducting intensive operations against al Qaeda in the Mosul area for weeks, aiming to stamp out the Sunni Arab insurgents in a city U.S. officials say is their last major urban stronghold.

Separately, a U.S. air strike on a house killed a family, including four children aged between four and 11, in the village of Samra, near the northern town of Tikrit, police spokesman Colonel Hatim Akram Thabit said.

"American war planes attacked the house and they killed six -- the father, his wife, two sons and two daughters," he said.

The U.S. military said in a statement that U.S. troops had received small arms fire, then they saw an armed man running into a group of buildings. They called for him to come out.

"When he refused to comply, coalition forces ... called for supporting aircraft to engage the building," it said, adding that the air strike had killed him and destroyed the building, but that U.S. troops had not seen any other casualties.

In another incident, U.S. forces said they killed three occupants of a vehicle that fired on their convoy near Baghdad airport.

MILITARY TOLL

Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari promised more military operations in the northern provinces of Nineveh and Diyala, centers of al Qaeda activity.

"Nineveh province is a big province. It cannot be secured overnight; it needs huge efforts. There will be an operation for these small red (hot) spots," he told a news briefing.

Preparations were also under way for an operation to "cleanse (Diyala province) thoroughly of terrorists," once Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki authorizes it, he said.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said last month that al Qaeda in Iraq had never been closer to defeat. But U.S. and Iraqi officials say the group, blamed for countless bombings that killed thousands of people, remains a threat.

Tuesday's attack 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.