Baghdad Blast Kills 5 US Troops

Five American troops are dead after a suicide bomber struck today in the Mansour district of Baghdad, the BBC reports. The soldiers were patrolling a busy shopping center when a young man wearing an explosive vest engaged them in conversation shortly before detonating, said a military spokesman. Three other service members and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded in the blast.

"Five soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the Iraqi and American people," said the chief of US forces in Baghdad. A Sunni tribal leader was killed today in a separate attack. Thaer Ghadban al-Karkhi, of the Sunni Awakening council—an ally of the US military—was killed by a female suicide bomber along with his daughter and two bodyguards.