Iraq Watch: August 18, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. troops were killed Thursday morning by an IED blast in the northern city of Samarra the U.S. military announced today.

The ancient city of Samarra - famous for its Great Mosque al-Mutawakkil, a unique spiral-shaped minaret constructed in the year 847 - is located about 60 miles north of Baghdad along the eastern banks of the Tigris river. The city has become a hotbed for insurgent activity since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Also to the north on Thursday, two policemen and a civilian were killed by insurgents in Mosul.

Elsewhere, three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated himself at an army checkpoint near the town of Balad.

In the capital, Jassem Jassim Wahib Doies, an Iraqi judge, was killed along with his driver after they were ambushed by gunmen in the southern district of al-Dora.

As the Monday deadline loomed Iraqi drafting committe members met again on Thursday in an attempt to hammer out some crucial issues, such as federalism and the role of Islam, that still divide Iraq's various ethnic and religious factions.

Meanwhile in Ramadi, insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and assualt rifles attacked a meeting between senior Sunni leaders and the governor of Al Anbar Province, Mamoun al-Alwani.

Dhahir al-Obeidi, head of the Sunni Endowment - one of the groups attending the meeting - and his deputy were wounded in the brazen attack according to Reuters. Also inujred was a local member of the radical Association of Muslim Scholars.

The terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, later claimed responsibility for the attack through statements posted on at least a dozen Ramadi mosques. Al-Qaida in Iraq has, in the past, threatened to attack anyone joining in Iraq's political process.