Nine U.S. troops killed in Iraq
POSTED: 4:10 a.m. EDT, October 18, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — In a deadly day of violence, nine U.S. service members died in Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. Military said Wednesday.

Four Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack west of Baghdad Tuesday at about 60 a.m.

Less than three hours later, another Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier died after his patrol was hit with small-arms fire in northern Baghdad.

In Diyala province, northeast of the Iraqi capital, three Task Force Lightning Soldiers assigned to 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were killed as the "result of enemy action" during military operations.

In Anbar province, west of Baghdad, one Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Tuesday of wounds "due to enemy action."

As of Wednesday, the U.S. military death toll stood at 63 for October and 598 for the entirety of 2006. Since the start of the war, the U.S. military has suffered 2,772 fatalities in Iraq. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

Dozens dead in Balad strife
Four days of persistent violence, mainly between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, has left dozens of people dead in the northern Iraqi city of Balad.

However, the U.S. military said Tuesday that increased security has brought a "marked decrease" in the violence, and coalition forces detained "two Iraqi police officers" who are suspected of involvement in the incident that set off the carnage.

The number of deaths reported varies. The U.S. military Tuesday issued a statement on the violence, saying that more than 60 Iraqis have been killed. Police say 40 died. (Watch Baghdad bomb wreckage, witnesses describe carnage — 1:43)

There has been other violence as well. The military said that in the past two days, Balad has been "hit with five indirect fire attacks, killing six civilians and wounding 10."

The ongoing sectarian strife isn't limited to Balad, as police also found 30 bullet-riddled bodies Tuesday and 64 bodies on Monday in various Baghdad neighborhoods, according to an official with Baghdad emergency police.

Attackers in the Iraqi capital Tuesday killed two police commandos and two civilians, police told CNN.

Police said a suicide car bomb targeting a police commando patrol in the southwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Saydiya killed two of the patrol members and wounded nine people, including five commandos.

In central Baghdad's Wathiq Square, two civilians died and three police were wounded by a mortar round.

Shiite and Sunni violence
Shiites are a majority population in Iraq, which was dominated by minority Sunnis under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

The communal antagonism has been common and well-publicized in Baghdad since the problem escalated in February. That's when a Shiite shrine, the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, was bombed, and the wave of revenge killings sparked by that attack continues.

Balad is nearly 20 miles south of Samarra.

The violence there increased after Shiite construction workers were kidnapped Friday on a road in the mainly Sunni town of Dhuluiya, across the Tigris River from the mainly Shiite Balad, both in Salaheddin province.

The U.S. military said 19 were kidnapped and killed.

The next day, the U.S. military said, more than 38 Sunnis were killed "in retaliation."

The killings prompted the provincial government to establish a 48-hour vehicle curfew Saturday at 5 p.m.

The military said Iraqi security forces maintained a "presence" across Balad and set up "checkpoints to halt insurgents and militias from entering the city." Coalition forces were asked by the locals to provide assistance.

U.S. Lt. Col. Jeffery Martindale, commander of 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, said coalition forces "detained two Iraqi police officers" alleged to be involved in Dhuluiya killings.

"By coordinating all of our efforts, we have seen a marked decrease in violence in the past 24 hours," Martindale said.

"We continue to conduct our normal patrols in the city and provide support for Iraqi security forces as they lead operations in stopping the sectarian violence in Balad," he said.

"We are also providing counterfire support against terrorists conducting indirect fire attacks against innocent civilians in Balad."

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni party, called the tit-for-tat "unprecedented" and said the coalition forces and the government bear "full responsibility."

It notes the kidnapping and killing of the construction workers, and it said police and militias conducted reprisal abductions and killings. Sunnis have blamed Shiite death squads for infiltrating the police.

It said the situation has been "unstable" and "security forces there have not been able to control it."

"What is happening in Balad is a dangerous precedent intended to produce a rift in the areas when people there used to live peacefully for years. The Islamic Party condemns all types of violence that have taken place in Balad," the party's statement said.

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