Bombers injure 61 soldiers

TALAFAR, Iraq – Suicide bombers, one in a car and another on foot, blew themselves up at the gates of two U.S. military bases Tuesday, wounding 61 American soldiers but failing to inflict deadly casualties on the scale of recent attacks in Iraq.

Most of the soldiers were slightly hurt by debris and flying glass, indicating that massive defenses – sand barriers, high concrete walls and numerous roadblocks leading to the entrances of bases – have paid off for American troops occupying Iraq.

In the larger of the two suicide bombings, a man drove up to the gate of a base of the 101st Airborne Division in Talafar, 235 miles northwest of Baghdad, at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday, the military said. Guards at the gate and in a watchtower opened fire and the vehicle blew up, leaving a large crater at the gate’s entryway.

Most soldiers were asleep in their barracks and there was no traffic around the gate. Roadblocks had forced the assailant to drive slowly, giving enough time for guards to fire. A concrete wall blunted the blast.

A statement from Central Command said 31 soldiers were wounded, but Maj. Trey Cate, a division spokesman, said put the number at 59. Both said most of the injuries were minor.

Later on Tuesday, a man acting suspiciously walked toward the gates of a U.S. base in Husseiniya, 15 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a U.S. military spokeswoman. When military police opened fire, he activated an explosive device and blew himself up. Two soldiers were slightly wounded.

The names of the Fort Lewis soldiers who died in Iraq on Monday were being withheld Tuesday, pending notification of their families. The three soldiers were from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat team, and were deployed as part of Task Force Iron Horse.

The brigade was traveling on a rural road during combat patrol northeast of Ad Duluiyah when an embankment collapsed, causing a rollover, Lt. Col. William MacDonald said from Tikrit.

“The accident was not a result of hostile fire,” MacDonald said.

Since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 448 U.S. service members have died in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense.

In other developments:

A U.S. Army observation helicopter took fire Tuesday and made an emergency landing west of Baghdad, and the two crew members walked away with “minimal injuries,” the U.S. military said.

Iraq’s interim government voted Tuesday to establish a war crimes tribunal to prosecute top members of Saddam Hussein’s regime, two people who attended the meeting said. The tribunal will be formally established today.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Cabinet approved a plan Tuesday to send nearly 1,000 soldiers to help in the reconstruction of Iraq.

The Pentagon on Tuesday formally barred companies from countries opposed to the Iraq war from bidding on $18.6 billion worth of reconstruction contracts. The directive from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz bars companies from U.S. allies such as France, Germany and Canada from bidding on the contracts because their governments opposed the American-led war.