Eight people were killed in Iraq Saturday in car bombings and other attacks near the capital and in the north of the country, dpa reported. In Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad, gunmen killed three Iraqi soldiers in an attack on a military vehicle near a packing plant, said police. In Samarra, 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, a car bomber blew himself up inside a petrol station killing three persons plus himself and injuring nine others, said Iraqi police. In a separate car bombing attack, a car bomb explosion in the western Baghdad district of Qadissiya injured three Iraqis. The blast appeared to have targeted a car carrying foreigners working for the U.S. military. One U.S. soldier was also reported killed and two others injured when their vehicle hit an explosive device in the Abu Ghraib region west of Baghdad Saturday, said the police. U.S. troops arrested six suspects after raiding nearby shops after the attack. The U.S. military announced Saturday the death of one of its soldiers west of Baghdad. In a statement, the military said a soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed in action when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against the enemy in Hit, Friday.
