5 U.S. troops perish in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Five U.S. troops died in Iraq on Thursday as a dozen explosions rocked Baghdad and sectarian killings intensified, after a one-week lull.

The U.S. military said that casualties suffered by American-led forces fell 23% nationwide during the week ending Oct. 30 and that the number of deadly roadside bombings dropped to a seven-month low during the same period.

But the relatively quiet week coincided with the days-long feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Attacks picked up again with the end of the holidays.

Three U.S. soldiers died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb about 2:15 p.m., the military said. A U.S. Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 was killed in battle in Al Anbar province, and a soldier died in Baghdad of noncombat causes, the military said.

Iraqi civilians bore the brunt of the day’s violence. A motorcycle laden with explosives blew up in a busy Sadr City market, killing at least four people and injuring 43 in the Shiite Muslim district of the capital. A bomb in the Jadida neighborhood, also heavily Shiite, killed two and injured 25.

Meanwhile, the bodies of at least 23 Iraqi men were found in various parts of Baghdad. The victims had been bound, beaten, tortured and shot in the head at close range.

Gunmen targeted Iraqis from many walks of life. Among those killed were the dean of the University of Baghdad’s College of Administration and Economy, a former member of ousted President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party south of Baghdad, a car parts dealer, a bus driver, a Sunni Arab cleric in the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra and a lawyer advising the main Sunni Muslim charity.

The attorney was killed along with his two daughters when gunmen stormed his home in Hillah, south of the capital.

Three masked gunmen opened fire on a primary school in southern Baghdad, wounding the principal and three students, police and hospital officials said.

Gunmen attacked a bakery in west Baghdad, killing two and injuring two.

A woman was killed in southwest Baghdad by stray gunfire, apparently from a bank guard fearful of robbers, police and hospital officials said.

Mortar rounds hit residential neighborhoods in south Baghdad and Hillah, injuring 14.

Mortar fire also struck central Basra, where British and Danish officials are about to evacuate to a better-protected air base on the city’s outskirts.

In an attempt to bring order to streets increasingly under the sway of sectarian paramilitary fighters, the Iraqi military has launched a recruitment drive and plans to quickly turn out 48,700 more soldiers.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s government has already recruited 30,000 of the new soldiers, 10,000 of whom are now in training.

About 18,000 of the new soldiers will be needed to replenish a force that has suffered combat losses and large-scale desertions.

The additional Iraqi security forces will bolster existing army units by 10% and add 21 battalions, authorities said. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said the Iraqi soldiers would give Maliki “new boots on the ground and provide him greater flexibility to respond to situations around the country.”

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Special correspondents in Baghdad, Basra and Hillah contributed to this report.