4 U.S. troops, 19 civilians killed in attacks around Baghdad

Three separate attacks in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and at least 11 civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Wednesday.\nThree of the soldiers were killed and two were wounded after their Humvee was hit with an explosively formed penetrator, a type of bomb that the U.S. alleges Iran has been supplying to Shiite militias. Iran denies the accusation.\nAP Television News video of the bombing Tuesday in the predominantly Shiite Mashtal neighborhood of eastern Baghdad showed the twisted wreckage of the Humvee burning wildly as soldiers hosed it down with water.\nAnother soldier was killed and two wounded during combat operations Tuesday in the west of the capital, the U.S. command said.\nA roadside bomb rocked an eastern Baghdad Shiite neighborhood early Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 19 others when it exploded next to buses used by morning commuters, police and hospital officials said.\nThe bombing just before 8 a.m. in Baladiyat left blood, broken glass and shoes on the ground around a small crater, APTN video showed.\nThe blast killed nine people immediately, according to police, while a medic in a nearby hospital said two others died there shortly afterward from their wounds.\n“We heard a big explosion and I saw many people get injured – I was one of them,” a man who identified himself only as Amjed told APTN from his hospital bed, his right shoulder bandaged and left arm in a sling. He said he had ventured out early to try to find work to support his family.\n“We’re poor people, we’re already suffering enough from the hardships of life and now this,” he said. “I’m fed up with those who plant bombs and target people.”\nThe blast came on the fringes of Sadr City, the neighborhood dominated by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who ordered a six-month suspension of operations by his Mahdi Army militia last week after clashes in the holy city of Karbala between Mahdi Army forces and a rival Shiite militia. U.S. officials believe mainstream Mahdi forces have generally stuck by the order but breakaway factions of the militia are continuing attacks.\nIn the north, a suicide truck bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing one policeman and wounding 26 people, including 24 civilians, police Brig. Saeed Ahmed al-Jubouri said.