American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2005  - Four Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed today when their patrol vehicle struck a makeshift bomb northwest of Baghdad, officials said.

The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Officials provided no other details.

In other news, a suicide car bomber missed Iraqi troops patrolling around Baghdad Dec. 12, but wounded five bystanders, officials said today. Troops from the 6th Iraqi Army Division and Iraqi police officers cleared the area and evacuated the injured to a local medical facility for treatment, officials noted. The targeted Iraqi soldiers suffered no injuries, they added.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. convoy Dec. 12 on a street in Fallujah, wounding a Marine and killing the bomber, officials at Camp Blue Diamond, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, said today.

Officials said the bomber was parked on the side of the street in a yellow taxi and detonated the bomb as the convoy passed. The injured Marine was taken to a nearby military hospital for treatment. No report was available on the Marine's condition.

Officials also said Iraqi security forces and Task Force Baghdad soldiers aggressively pursued terrorists in eastern Baghdad Dec. 12.

In the early morning hours, elements of 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, launched a raid to capture three suspected terrorists who are now being processed in the Iraqi judicial system.

Later that morning, elements of Iraq's 3rd Public Order Brigade in Salman Pak discovered a roadside bomb hidden in the carcass of a dog. An Iraqi police explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the bomb, officials said.

Iraqi Army troops and coalition forces jointly found and destroyed an illicit weapons cache Dec. 12, following a tip-off on the location of the stash by coordinates found in a global positioning system device, officials said. Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, and coalition troops used metal detectors to narrow the search areas and pinpointed the weapons stockpile, officials noted.

The cache inventory included a mixed bag of 50 artillery rounds of South African, Russian and Chinese manufacture, 30 pounds of propellant, 2 pounds of plastic explosive, a 122 mm rocket and launcher, various batteries, fuses, and timers.

Elsewhere, Iraqi army and coalition troops caught and detained a man attempting to evade a cordon-and-search operation by jumping from a two-story window Dec. 12, officials said.

Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, and coalition troops were screening several persons of interest when they saw the suspect leaping from a building window in an effort to evade questioning. The soldiers promptly collared the man and held him for further questioning by authorities.

In the air war over Iraq, coalition aircraft flew 58 close-air-support missions Dec. 12.

Air Force F-15 fighter jets launched precision-guided munitions against a bunker used by enemy forces near Baghdad. An Air Force Predator fired a Hellfire missile against an insurgent improvised explosive device location near Hadithah.

Other Air Force F-15s and U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets provided close-air support to coalition troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces near Hawijah and Ramadi. In addition, 10 Air Force and Navy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft flew missions in support of operations in Iraq. Royal Air Force fighter aircraft performed in a nontraditional ISR role with their electro-optical and infrared sensors.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq and U.S. Central Command Air Forces Forward news releases.)