Five US soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a bomb blast in central Baghdad on Monday, the US military said, in the worst single attack on US forces in Baghdad in months. An Iraqi interpreter was also wounded in the explosion, which hit the soldiers while they were on foot patrol, the military said in a statement. Iraqi police said the soldiers had been walking in the street in Mansour district when a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest walked up to them and blew himself up. A police official at Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital said nine wounded Iraqis had been admitted, including a policeman. They had spoken of a suicide bomber who had exploded among the Americans, he said. The US military said four soldiers were killed in the blast and one died later of wounds. It did not confirm the cause of the explosion. “We remain resolute in our resolve to protect the people of Iraq and kill or capture those who would bring them harm,” said Colonel Allen Batschelet, chief of staff of US forces in Baghdad. Meanwhile, a female suicide bomber killed the head of a local group of Sunni fighters northeast of Baghdad who had turned against Al-Qaeda insurgents, the leader's brother and a provincial police official said. Sheikh Thaeir Ghadhban Al-Karkhi, his 5-year-old niece, a 24-year cousin and a security guard were killed in the blast in Diyala province, where violence has persisted despite drops in other parts of Iraq. Duraid Mahmoud, the sheikh's brother, told The Associated Press he witnessed the attack inside his brother's home. A provincial police official confirmed the attack. The woman, wearing an explosives belt, entered Al-Karkhi's home in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, 20 km (13 miles) east of Baquba. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been targeting fellow Sunni Arabs who have taken up arms against the militants and joined the so-called Awakening Councils like the one Al-Karkhi led. The councils are made up of US-backed former insurgents who have risen up against Al-Qaeda's brutality and strict religious codes of conduct it was trying to impose on local populations. The US military said it was looking into the incident but did not immediately have any details. __
