Five U.S. soldiers are killed in Iraq

A U.S. soldier was killed in fighting north of Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Sunday. Three other U.S. soldiers were killed when their vehicle rolled into a canal Sunday, the military said. The men from Task Force Danger were on a combat patrol near the town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement. A fourth Task Force Danger soldier was killed and one was wounded in fighting near Samarra, a flash point of the insurgency 60 miles north of Baghdad, the military said. In the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, an Iraqi translator for Italian troops and his son were shot to death Sunday, a spokesman for Italy's military said. Hassan Khiwaet Ghali, 51, and his 20-year-old son, Salah, were killed near their home, said Lt. Col. Francesco Tirino, spokesman for the Italian contingent in Nasiriyah. The elder Ghali had worked for the Italian contingent since summer 2003. In violence in the north, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi national guardsmen were also killed while trying to defuse a bomb along Mosul's airport road. [more]

• U.S. soldier killed, 4 injured in Iraq [more]