more horror in Iraq

5 US soldiers, 2 Iraqis killed in Mosul

BAGHDAD – A suicide truck driver detonated a ton of explosives near a police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, killing five American soldiers in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in more than a year.

The U.S. military said Iraqi police were the bomber's target and that the Americans were caught up as bystanders.

The horrific blast, believed to have been carried out by Sunni extremists, is likely to increase pressure on Iraq's prime minister to ask American combat troops to stay in Mosul after the June 30 deadline for them to pull out of Iraqi cities.

America's top commander suggested in an interview this week that even as U.S. troops pull out of other cities, he may have to send reinforcements to Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, and to volatile Diyala province, northeast of the capital.

Of the 31 U.S. troops killed in combat in the Iraq war this year, more than a third — 11 — have been in Mosul, an angry, impoverished city where efforts to obliterate al-Qaida and other Sunni militants have failed over the years. About 5,000 U.S. troops and 36,000 Iraqi army and police officers currently are believed to be stationed in Mosul and the surrounding province.

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The extremists are continuing to try to control American actions in Iraq and there is certainly no easy answers here...