Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Attack on Base, June 6 2011

Tim Craig and Aziz Alwan,Washington Post
BAGHDAD — Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in a rocket attack at a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in the capital, officials said. It was the largest death toll for the American military in Iraq in a single incident in two years.

The U.S. military did not release details of the attack, but Iraqi officials and witnesses said it occurred at Camp Loyalty, which Iraqis call Baladiyat base. The base is located in the Baladiyat district of Baghdad, close to Sadr City. Iraqi security officials said about six rockets hit the base, apparently near the Americans’ residential quarters.

The attack was just one of several violent incidents in Iraq on Monday that left at least 17 Iraqis dead.

In Tikrit, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace, killing at least 11 and wounding 20. At the same palace last Friday, another explosion partially leveled a mosque , killing at least 18 people.

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