Five U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi civilian were injured in a car bomb explosion north of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday.
The five Task Force Danger soldiers and the civilian were traveling in a Humvee on Monday near Hawija, located around 150 miles north of Baghdad, when the blast occurred, the military said.
A suspected activist was detained at the site of the attack, the statement added. The injured were are in stable condition, it said.
Also Monday, U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Division seized several weapons caches in and near the city of Al Amirya, southeast of Baghdad, during clearing operations, the military said.
The caches included mortar shells, RPG rounds and five rocket launchers. The 1st Marine Division will conduct a controlled detonation in order to destroy the weapons and munitions, the statement said.
In the meantime, unknown gunmen shot dead on Tuesday an Iraqi nuclear scientist north of the capital, according to witnesses.
Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher was on his way to work at Diyala University when armed men opened fire on his car as it was crossing a bridge in Baqouba, located some 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
The vehicle swerved off the bridge and fell into the Khrisan river, witnesses said. Al-Daher, who was a professor at the local university, was removed from the submerged car and rushed to Baqouba hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, the last of Hungary's troops in the US-led occupation left Iraq, completing the new EU member's withdrawal from the war-torn country, according to a defense official.
Defense ministry spokesman Istvan Bocskai was quoted by AFP as saying, "The last Hungarian soldier left Iraq this afternoon [Monday] and all 300 troops will be back home before Christmas."
