Attackers firing from two cars killed 17 Iraqis as they were heading to work Sunday at a U.S. military facility in the northern city of Tikrit while separate attacks killed five Iraqi security personnel in nearby towns.
Captain Bill Coppernoll, spokesman for the Tikrit-based U.S. 1st Infantry Division, said "insurgents" fired from two cars at several buses carrying Iraqis working for occupation forces that had stopped in northern Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.
Coppernoll said 17 Iraqis were killed and 13 wounded in the attack, which took place at about 8:30 a.m (local time).
Later, a suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji, about 75 miles to the north, detonating his explosives-packed vehicle, Coppernoll conveyed. Gunmen then opened fire on the position. Three guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and 18 injured.
Also Sunday, a joint Iraqi-US patrol was ambushed in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near Samarra, north of Baghdad. Two Iraqis were killed and 10 injured.
Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded when their patrol came under attack in the northwestern city of Mosul, the military said Sunday.
The soldiers, part of the U.S. Task Force Olympia based out of Mosul, were attacked at about 3 p.m. Saturday, according to a military statement.
The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a Mosul military hospital for medical treatment. The identities of the slain soldiers were not released pending notification of relatives.
