Five American troops died south of Baghdad, including four in a single bombing, the military said Sunday. The four were killed by an explosion during combat operations south of Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said on Sunday. Four other soldiers were wounded, Reuters reported.
At least 29 American soldiers have now died in Iraq in August, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki Sunday ordered an investigation into the assassinations of a provincial governor and police chief, who were killed Saturday in a bomb attack in the Shiite south. "It is with sadness that we learnt of the martyrdom of the governor of Diwaniyah, Khalil Jalil Hamza, the police chief Khalid Hassan, and their guards from an explosive device," the premier's office said in a statement, cited by AFP.
"We have issued orders for an investigation into this criminal act and for those who carried out this cruel crime to be detained, so that justice can be done," it added.
On his part, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani blamed extremists for what he labeled a "cowardly terrorist act." "They have committed a crime in a secure part of our country, after they were besieged and kicked out of Anbar, Diyala, and Samarra," Talabani's office said in a statement.
The governor and police chief of Iraq's Shiite province of Qadisiyah, of which Diwaniyah is the regional capital, were killed along with three security guards when a bomb ripped through their convoy Saturday.
