Aussie troops wounded by bomb
Two Australian soldiers have been wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Iraq, the Defence Department said today.
The injuries come as nine US soldiers were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base north-east of Baghdad yesterday.
The injured Australians are from the Australian Overwatch Battle Group West and were on patrol on a road north of the town of An Nasariyah in Dhi Qar Province yesterday.
A departmental news release said their Australian Light Armoured Vehicle was "extensively damaged and destroyed by a subsequent fire".
The soldiers were from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Darwin.
One received lower leg injuries, while the other suffered less serious wounds. Their injuries were not believed to be life threatening.
They were evacuated to a US military hospital.
Officials in Canberra told smh.com.au that Australian troops were involved in three related security incidents in the area.
In the first incident, the Australians came under a rocket attack by insurgents, but there were no injuries.
The second incident was the blast by a roadside "improvised explosive device" in which two Australian vehicles were involved.
The first vehicle was badly damaged and two of its three occupants were wounded. The second vehicle was immobilised, but its occupants were uninjured.
Soon after the explosion, Australian soldiers fired at an approaching vehicle as they secured the blast site.
- with AAP
AP reports: The suicide bombing that killed the nine US soldiers occurred in Diyala province, a volatile area that has been the site of fierce fighting between US and Iraqi troops, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, according to a military statement.
The nine Task Force Lightning soldiers died of injuries sustained in the blast, which also left 20 soldiers and an Iraqi civilian wounded, the military said.
Of those wounded, 15 soldiers were treated and returned to duty while five others and the Iraqi civilian were evacuated to a medical facility for further care, it added.
Identities were not released pending notification of relatives.
It was the second bold attack against a US base north of Baghdad in just over two months and was notable for its use of a suicide car bomber.
On February 19, insurgents struck a US combat post in Tarmiyah, about 50 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding 17 in what the military called a "co-ordinated attack''.
It began with a suicide car bombing, then gunfire on soldiers pinned down in a former Iraqi police station, where fuel storage tanks were set ablaze by the blast.
Militants have mostly used hit-and-run ambushes, roadside bombs or mortars on US troops and stayed away from direct assaults on fortified military compounds to avoid US firepower.
