Three US soldiers killed in Iraq bombing

A roadside bomb killed three US soldiers and an interpreter in northern Iraq, the US military said today.

A roadside bomb killed three US soldiers and an interpreter in northern Iraq, the US military said today.

A military statement gave no further details about last night's attack in Nineveh province, where US and Iraqi forces have been waging a crackdown against al Qaeda insurgents.

It brings the US military death toll to 25 so far in June.

US troop deaths are up from May when they fell to 19, the lowest monthly total since the 2003 invasion. More than 4,100 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq.

Two US soldiers and two US government employees were among 10 people killed yesterday when a bomb exploded at a council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. On Monday, a gunman killed two US soldiers and wounded three as they left a council building southeast of Baghdad.

The US military said violence in Iraq fell to a four-year low in May following crackdowns by US and Iraqi forces on Shia militias in Baghdad and the south of the country, and on al Qaeda in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province.

US officials say Mosul is the last major urban stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgents.

Despite the crackdown, security forces have reported frequent shootings and bomb attacks around the city. The head of Mosul city council, Khalid Mahmoud, and his driver were killed in a drive-by shooting today, police said.

Late yesterday, a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near a police station in Mosul, killing a policeman and a child and wounding 73 people, including seven policemen, police said.

The US military said as many as 90 civilians were wounded in the bombing, which it blamed on al Qaeda.