At least 10 American troops died in the Diyala province north of Baghdad, two of the victims in a helicopter that went down, the military reported Tuesday, making May the deadliest month of the year for U.S. troops in Iraq. The latest deaths raised the number of U.S. forces killed this month to at least 112.
All the dead were Task Force Lightning soldiers. The military said six troops died in blasts near their vehicles.
Also, a parked minibus packed with explosives blew up Tuesday in a busy section of central Baghdad, killing 23 people and wounding 68, police said. A second car bombing in the western part of the capital killed 17 others.
Meanwhile, five Britons were abducted Tuesday from an Iraqi government office in Baghdad, driven away in a 19-vehicle convoy filled with men in police uniforms who headed toward a Shiite stronghold in the capital, the British government and an Iraqi official said.
A senior official in the Iraqi Interior Ministry said that Mahdi Army militiamen were believed responsible.
