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Iraq Blast Kills 3 U.S. Troops, Wounds 8

Posted on: Friday, 25 February 2005, 09:00 CST

TARMIYAH, Iraq - A roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded eight others north of Iraq's capital Friday, the military said.

Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, said a U.S. patrol was hit by an improvised explosive device, or IED. That is the term the military uses for roadside bombs.

Three soldiers were killed and eight were wounded, Kent said.

Witnesses said the attack took place around midday in Tarmiyah, 20 miles north of Baghdad.

Residents saw about a dozen injured U.S. soldiers lying on blood-splattered ground after the attack.

"I was heading to our house ... There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying."

He said he was about 200 yards way and believed explosives were hidden among the palm trees overlooking the street.

Nahed and Alaa Nagy, 22, who works as a guard at a nearby factory, said helicopters landed in the area 15 minutes after the explosion and took the injured soldiers away. Both said they heard gunfire after the incident.

The road was immediately blocked off by the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces.

At least 1,489 members of the U.S. military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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