A bomb aimed at a top Shiite cleric killed seven people outside one of southern Iraq's holiest shrines Wednesday. The attack in Karbala wounded the cleric, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalayee.
Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that a U.S. Marine was killed in action Tuesday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad while another U.S. soldier died from gunshot wounds sustained during a convoy mission south of Baghdad.
Elsewhere, three Polish troops were killed and four wounded Wednesday when their Sokol W-3 helicopter crashed near Karbala, south of Baghdad, during an emergency landing caused by an apparent "technical failure," the Polish military said, according to the AP.
Poland intends to cut the size of its force in Iraq from 2,400 troops to 1,700 in mid-February, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski announced on Tuesday.
