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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| US troops killed in northern Iraq | US troops killed in northern Iraq |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Five US soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military has said. | Five US soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military has said. |
| A patrol that was hit in the explosion then came under small arms fire before US and Iraqi forces secured the area, Reuters news agency reports. | A patrol that was hit in the explosion then came under small arms fire before US and Iraqi forces secured the area, Reuters news agency reports. |
| Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced the start of a major offensive in Mosul on Friday. | Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced the start of a major offensive in Mosul on Friday. |
| The ethnically mixed city has seen a rise in violence over the last year. | The ethnically mixed city has seen a rise in violence over the last year. |
| US commanders have said that Mosul is now the last large city with a significant al-Qaeda presence, after militants were driven from the Iraqi capital and Anbar province. | |
| Last Wednesday the city was rocked by an explosion at a block of flats believed to house a bomb-making factory that left at least 34 people dead and hundreds injured. | |
| A day later, a local police chief and two officers were killed in an ambush as they toured the scene of the blast. | A day later, a local police chief and two officers were killed in an ambush as they toured the scene of the blast. |
| Mr Maliki announced then what he said would be a "decisive" operation, and Iraqi army tanks and helicopters began to arrive in the city along with troop reinforcements on Sunday. | |
| Truce questioned | |
| Elsewhere in Iraq, allies of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr said on Monday that they had urged him to follow through on threats not to extend a ceasefire agreed by his militia, the Mehdi Army. | |
| They are angry at the continued pursuit by US and Iraqi forces of so-called rogue elements not observing the ceasefire. | |
| The cleric and his supporters have also alleged that rival Shia militias have continued to operate within the Iraqi security forces and target their followers. | |
| The six-month truce, due to expire at the end of February, is seen as one of the key causes of a sharp drop in violence in and around Baghdad. | |
| An increase in US troop numbers has also been credited with reducing the violence. |