BAGHDAD – A suicide car bomb hit a joint US-Iraqi military patrol in eastern Iraq on Friday, killing two US soldiers and at least three Iraqis as the US prepares to end combat operations. There were conflicting reports on casualties from the blast in the town of Jalawla, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, when a car packed with explosives detonated alongside the joint patrol, near a market. The US military said in a statement that two US soldiers, one Iraqi policeman and two civilians were killed. Six US soldiers and around 24 other people were wounded, it said. "US soldiers provided immediate medical attention to the wounded soldiers and evacuated them to a nearby military post using ground vehicles," the statement said. Iraqi security sources told Reuters that at least six people had died, including at least two US soldiers. Two sources put the death toll at eight. A spike in violence over the past two months since an inconclusive March parliamentary election has underscored the fragility of security improvements in Iraq. Overall violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007, but bombings and shootings remain common, frequently targeting Iraqi security forces and Sunni ex-insurgents who switched sides to fight Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. US forces have pulled out of Iraqi cities and are working to formally end combat operations by September 1, cutting the U.S. military force from just under 90,000 to 50,000.
