BAGHDAD, Iraq— Three U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded Sunday in rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone and a military base in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
A fourth U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province, the military said.
The rocket attacks came at 3:30 p.m., according to a U.S. military official. The attack on the Green Zone killed two of the soldiers and wounded 17, the official said. The other attack in the city, at a U.S. military base in eastern Baghdad, killed one soldier and wounded 14, the official said.
Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier assigned to the division operating south of Baghdad died from noncombat-related injuries, according to a military statement.
The Green Zone and U.S. military facilities have become frequent targets of rockets and mortar shells that military officials say are fired from Sadr City and other parts of eastern Baghdad.
The latest series of attacks began late last month in response to an Iraqi government military offensive against Shiite militias in Basra, in southern Iraq. A cease-fire negotiated between deputies of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who wields extraordinary influence among many Shiites, and the Iraqi government restored order last week.
But the entrances to Sadr City have been tightly guarded, with few vehicles allowed to enter or leave. Residents of the vast slum have been on edge in recent days as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has given mixed signals about whether raids in the area are imminent.
Sadr, formerly a political supporter of Maliki, had a falling-out with the prime minister last year and has stepped up his criticism of what he calls the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
It was unclear whether the attacks were related to clashes in Sadr City early Sunday. Nine men were killed when U.S. military helicopters fired Hellfire missiles into Sadr City, after a week of relative calm in an area that has become a flash point of violence in Iraq, the U.S. military said.
Also Sunday, 42 university students traveling in a bus from Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul were kidnapped at gunpoint, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. U.S. soldiers in a helicopter spotted the bus near Mosul and helped Iraqi soldiers stop it shortly after the abductions.
Three suspected insurgents were detained, the U.S. military said in a statement. No students were hurt.
An Iraqi law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he fears for his safety, said a cell of the insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq, which has targeted students and scholars in the past, was behind the failed kidnapping. The source said the group released a statement condemning the study of law, saying students should practice the law of God, not man.
One of the students said that the kidnappers “asked us first who has a relative who works for the Iraqi army or the police.”
“When no one answered,” he said, “they put us all in the truck.”
U.S. military deaths
The latest identifications reported by the U.S. military of personnel killed in Iraq:
Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis L. Griffin, 28, Dover, Del.; died Thursday near Baghdad of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an explosive; assigned to the 377th Security Forces Squadron, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
Army Spc. Charles A. Jankowski, 24, Panama City, Fla.; died March 28 in Arab Jabour of wounds suffered when an explosive struck near his vehicle; assigned to the 3rd Brigade Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
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