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5 troops hurt in Iraq checkpoint bombing

BAGHDAD — A bomb exploded at a checkpoint Tuesday in Baghdad, wounding five American soldiers and three civilians, the U.S. military said. Iraqi officials claimed it was a suicide bombing and said two people were killed.

The attack occurred just after noon as women were being searched before being allowed to enter a commercial street in the predominantly Sunni Amariyah neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, according to a local police official and an Iraqi army officer.

Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, said initial reporting indicated it was not a suicide attack but a bomb that was left at the checkpoint and later detonated. He said no deaths were reported, but five soldiers and three civilians were wounded.

The Iraqi officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information, said a female suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt hidden under her all-encompassing black robe at a checkpoint. A policeman said two Iraqis were killed in the attack but the report could not be independently verified.

Such checkpoints have been erected across Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi authorities have walled off entire neighborhoods as part of a security crackdown that has helped to bring the levels of violence in the capital down more than 50 percent. Women are usually searched separately by female guards because of Islamic sensitivities.

The women attacked Tuesday were waiting at one of two entrances to the Amal al-Shaabi market district.