BAGHDAD — A car packed with explosives detonated near a military patrol on Friday in the restive Iraqi province of Diyala, killing two American soldiers, an Iraqi policeman and two Iraqi civilians, the American military said.
Six American soldiers and at least 24 Iraqi police officers and civilians were wounded, officials said.
The attack was the deadliest on the American military here in more than two months. It was also a grim reminder that while violence has diminished remarkably across Iraq, hundreds of people are still killed each month here. So far this year, 35 American soldiers have died in Iraq in combat or in what the military terms "non-hostile incidents."
Iraqi officials said the car bomb, detonated by its driver, struck an American-Iraqi patrol near Jalawla, about 70 miles northeast of Baghdad. Long troubled, the town has a complicated sectarian and ethnic mix. Its Kurdish inhabitants are both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, while most of its Arab residents are?Sunni.
Witnesses said the explosion on Friday could be heard far outside town, which is surrounded by foothills in the northeast of the fertile province. In the confused aftermath, gunfire erupted, sending survivors running from a scene that was littered with body parts. The blast collapsed several homes, witnesses said.
"They claim they are fighting the Americans, but the Americans are withdrawing now," said Zuhair Fadhil Hassan, a 61-year-old resident whose son was wounded in the chest. "All they're doing is directing their attacks at the hearts of Iraqis."
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, though it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, a homegrown insurgency group that often uses suicide bombers.
The Iraqi police said that one American soldier was missing, and that a search was under way for him. The American military had no immediate comment on the report.
Two other people were killed Friday when a roadside bomb exploded in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. The day before, a car bomb killed four people in the capital.