By IRNA,
Baghdad : An explosion apparently caused by a bomb in a district council building in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad killed two American soldiers, at least six Iraqis and two civilians working for the US military on Tuesday.
Iraqi council members who were at the scene of the attack described the civilians as American.
A third American soldier was wounded in the attack, the military said.
Since the neighborhood meetings are held regularly and are publicized, they make relatively easy targets.
The visit by the US troops to the meeting had been unexpected, however, said the council spokesman, Ahmed Hassan.
“American forces do not attend regularly and that is why we were surprised this morning,” he said.
“The explosion happened inside the room where some members of the council and Americans were.”
The deaths followed an incident Monday when a man identified as a security guard for an Iraqi politician opened fire on at least a half- dozen American soldiers with his automatic rifle, killing two of them.
That attack occurred during a meeting with Iraqi officials in a village southeast of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
The number of casualties in the incident was in dispute.
The US military said that two American soldiers had been killed and that three and an interpreter had been wounded.
The Interior Ministry official said that in addition to the two soldiers who were killed, at least six soldiers were wounded. The gunman was killed.