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Roadblock Shooting Kills 5

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By LORI HINNANT, The Associated Press

Published: November 28, 2007

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops fired on vehicles at checkpoints in Baghdad and northern Iraq, killing a child and at least four other people, the military command said Tuesday. It also said it was checking a report an American patrol shot at civilian cars near a Baghdad bridge, killing two Iraqis.

Roadblock shootings have consistently fed anti-American sentiment among many Iraqis since the arrival of U.S. forces in 2003. U.S. troops have been hit by suicide car bombs numerous times since 2003 and act quickly to protect themselves when a driver ignores orders to stop.

Also Tuesday, two American soldiers were killed in an explosion north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. They were the first U.S. combat deaths reported in five days.

The roadblock shooting in Baghdad took place Tuesday morning in a northern neighborhood known to be a Shiite militia stronghold as a minibus driver picked up employees of the Rasheed bank, Iraqi police said.

U.S. troops fired warning shots when the bus reached the checkpoint and tried to drive through, killing as many as four passengers, including three women, police and hospital officials said.

"As I understand it, some of the warning fire ricocheted and may have killed two to three individuals," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.

In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, a burst of violence killed at least 11 Iraqis, police said, including seven who died when a suicide bomber disguised as a herdsman attacked a police headquarters.

A female suicide bomber targeting a U.S. patrol near the Diyala provincial capital, Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, wounded five nearby civilians, an Iraqi army officer said.

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