Baghdad: Al-Qaeda-linked group posted a Web statement on Tuesday claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed nine US paratroopers and wounded 20 in the worst attack on American ground forces in Iraq in more than a year.
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militants that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, said it was behind Monday's attack on a US patrol base in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad - an area that has seen a spike in violence since American troops surged into the capital to halt violence there.
The victims were all members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, said a spokesman for the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based unit. It was the highest number of casualties for the division since the war began, Maj. Tom Earnhardt said.
Meanwhile, police in the same area said gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers killed six Iraqis and burned five homes Tuesday in an unrelated attack. South of the capital, a family of seven was killed en masse - shot to death in their beds at dawn by masked gunmen, neighbors and police said.
British forces transferred another military base to Iraqi troops in the country's south, ahead of the planned withdrawal this summer of about half of Britain's contribution to the US-led coalition here.
And in Baghdad, two bombs went off outside the Iranian Embassy on Tuesday for the second consecutive day. Six civilians were injured, police said. Tension has risen over allegations by the US and some Sunni politicians in Iraq about alleged Iranian interference in the country.
A suicide car bomber rammed into an American patrol base in Diyala on Monday, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20, the military said. All were members of the 82nd Airborne's 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, the military said. Fifteen of the 20 were treated and later returned to duty, while five others and an Iraqi civilian were evacuated to a medical facility, it said.
In its Web posting Tuesday, the Islamic State of Iraq put the number of Americans killed at 30.
''Almighty God has guided the soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq to new methods of explosions,'' it said without elaborating. The message appeared on a Web site that frequently airs communications from militants, but its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
It was single deadliest attack on ground forces since December 1, 2005, when a roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 on a foot patrol near Fallujah.
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