Bomb targeting U.S. convoy in Iraq kills 3

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb struck a convoy of U.S. officials and civilian contractors on a visit to a construction site in western Iraq, killing three people and wounding two others, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

A statement said the attack, which occurred Monday near the city of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, killed one "coalition force" soldier -- in Falluja all foreign troops are American -- and two civilians.

One civilian worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, the other for the U.S. Department of State.

Two other civilians working for the U.S. Department of Defense were also wounded. It did not give any of the casualties' nationalities.

It said the names of the dead and wounded would be withheld pending efforts to contact their relatives -- something the United States usually does when its own citizens have been killed or injured in Iraq.

Violence in mostly Sunni Arab western Iraq has fallen since it was the hub of a raging insurgency in 2005 through 2007, but militant cells still operate in the vast desert region.

U.S. military officials say some insurgent groups in Iraq, mindful of the loss of public support al Qaeda suffered because of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, are trying to reinvent themselves as fighters who only kill foreign forces, not Iraqis, using more carefully targeted bombs and sniper attacks.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Richard Balmforth)