Two American troops were killed in separate attacks in the Iraqi cities of Samarra and Mosul in the last 24 hours, a U.S. army spokesman said on Thursday.
Elsewhere, a US rocket attack killed a mother and her two teenage sons north of Baghdad Thursday and badly injured her two daughters, neighbours and hospital officials said, according to Reuters.
Two rockets hit civilian houses in a residential neighbourhood of Baquba, 65 kilometers north of Baghdad, at around 5am (0100 GMT), the report added. Residents blamed the attack on the US occupying forces.
Meanwhile, one of four Italians held hostage in Iraq was executed by his abductors, Italy's Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini confirmed late Wednesday.
Earlier, the Qatar-based TV network Al-Jazeera said it had a video of the killing. Frattini said the Italian ambassador to Qatar, where the network is based, watched the video and confirmed that the man killed was Fabrizio Quattrocchi, one of the kidnapped Italians. (Albawaba.com)
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