Bomb kills 6 Iraqis, 4 Americans in Baghdad

By Dean Yates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb killed 10 people including two U.S. government employees and two U.S. soldiers at a council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday, officials said.

Police said six Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in the attack at a local council building in southern Sadr City.

The U.S. military blamed renegade Shi'ite militias called "special groups" for the bombing. That is jargon for rogue elements of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia that the military says are equipped, trained and funded by Iran. Tehran denies the charges.

U.S. forces also blamed a special group cell for a truck bomb that killed 63 people in a Shi'ite neighborhood of Baghdad a week ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deaths of the American civilians, one from the State Department and the other from the Department of Defense, were "a terrible reminder of the dangers that our colleagues face daily in advancing our critical foreign policy goals".

The U.S. military said a suspect who had tested positive for explosives residue had been caught trying to flee the scene. That suggests a bomb was planted in the council building.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, said the target of the attack was believed to be a high-ranking council member. It was unclear if that person survived.

Stover said the rogue Shi'ite militant groups were unhappy the council member was working with U.S. forces.