7 US troops killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD - The US military announced the deaths of seven more American troops in combat yesterday, including four in Anbar province, the Sunni stronghold where US officials have said a tribal revolt against Al Qaeda in Iraq has brought dramatic improvements in security.

Two of Iraq's top political leaders, meanwhile, raised objections to the planned execution of three former Saddam Hussein lieutenants convicted of massacring Kurds in the late 1980s.

A US statement said four Marines were killed Thursday in combat in Anbar, but gave no further details.

Three soldiers from the Army's Task Force Lightning died Thursday when a bomb exploded near their vehicle in Nineveh, a northern province that includes Iraq's third-largest city, Mosul, the military said.

Those deaths raised to at least 3,760 the number of members of the US military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Britain's Defense Ministry also announced yesterday that a British soldier was killed Wednesday, but that news of the death was kept secret for security reasons. The British statement did not say how the soldier died.

A total of 169 British military or civilian employees have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, the ministry said.

The US military statement did not say where the Marines were killed in Anbar, a vast, province that extends from the western outskirts of Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Insurgents in Anbar blew up two suspension bridges on the main highway leading to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a police intelligence officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The intelligence officer said the attacks occurred near a spot where the road forks - with one part heading to Saudi Arabia and the other to Jordan. He said five bridges have been hit by insurgents in Anbar so far this year.

US officials have been pressing Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to step up financial support to Anbar to lure disaffected Sunnis away from the insurgency. The Iraqi government announced Thursday it was sending $70 million to Anbar to create new jobs. Another $50 million was allocated to compensate citizens who suffered from military operations.

US officials have been urging the Shi'ite-led government to make political concessions to Sunnis, who took up arms against US forces after the collapse of Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

Earlier this week an Iraqi appeals court upheld the death sentences imposed against Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid; former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai; and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces.

All three were convicted of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in June for their role in the brutal crackdown that killed up to 180,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas two decades ago known as "Operation Anfal."

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told reporters Tai should be spared the gallows because he carried out orders under threat of death by Hussein and engaged in unofficial contacts with the Kurds during the former regime.

The Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, told CNN the hangings should not proceed until he, Talabani, and the Shi'ite vice president, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, signed off on the executions.