4 U.S. soldiers die in Iraq roadside bombings

TIKRIT, Iraq — A roadside bomb in Saddam Hussein's hometown killed two American soldiers and wounded four Saturday, a day after the military said two other soldiers died in a similar explosion elsewhere in Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle.

The soldiers killed Saturday were patrolling in downtown Tikrit, north of Baghdad, around 5 a.m. in an armored Humvee when a roadside bomb exploded, said Capt. Tim Crowe of the U.S. Army.

The blast destroyed the vehicle. Crowe said small arms fire erupted in the same area shortly before the explosion, possibly to distract the soldiers.

The four wounded soldiers were evacuated to a military hospital north of Tikrit. It was not immediately clear how serious their injuries were.

After the attack, about 50 soldiers fanned out through the city searching for evidence and asking locals for information about the attack.

The soldiers were from the army's 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, which is taking over security in the Tikrit area on Saturday.

Roadside bombs have become the main threat to U.S. soldiers on patrol in the Sunni Triangle, a region has seen some of the fiercest guerrilla fighting.

On Friday, the military said two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third wounded when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb Thursday northeast of Habbiniyah. Another American soldier was killed and two others injured earlier Thursday by a homemade bomb in Baqouba.

On Friday, a top U.S. military official said four Iraqis suspected of killing a pair of American officials and their translator appear to be active police officers working with a Saddam Hussein loyalist, raising concerns that insurgents are infiltrating Iraqi security forces being trained by U.S. forces.

The four were caught along with a former officer from the Saddam-era police forces and a civilian after the slayings Tuesday of the two U.S.-led coalition staffers and an Iraqi woman south of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

U.S. troops have been setting up Iraqi police and other security forces, intending to gradually put them on the frontlines against guerrillas.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor called the policemen's role in the attack "an exception" and defended what he called a "robust" process of vetting police recruits to try to uncover criminal pasts or links to Saddam's regime. "But it is not perfect," he said. "Individuals slip through the cracks. We act to identify it and remove them immediately."