A suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people and injuring 50, police said. Ten policemen were among the dead in the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m., according to a police official in the city.
The American military also reported the deaths of three more soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and one who died of wounds from a roadside bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday. At least 122 American soldiers have died in May, the third-deadliest month of the Iraq conflict.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces pressed on Thursday with the search for five kidnapped Britons. A U.S. military statement said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested two "members of the secret cell terrorist network'' on Thursday in Sadr City.
However, a police officer in Sadr City said an American helicopter hit a house and car at 4:30 a.m., killing two elderly people sleeping on the roof of their home. The officer said a 13-year-old boy was injured.
Also in Sadr City raids, Shiite cleric Abdul-Zahra al-Suwaidi claimed his home was raided and ransacked by American forces at 3 a.m. Thursday. Al-Suwaidi, who runs the Sadr City political office of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said he was sleeping elsewhere at the time of the raid.
Dozens of U.S. Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles had taken up positions around Sadr City at nightfall Wednesday, the AP reported.
