Two Iraqis killed in Baghdad, US marine killed in Anbar (Roundup)

Jul 31, 2007, 14:51 GMT

Baghdad - At least two Iraqis were killed and two others wounded in a blast in Baghdad, while a US marine was killed in Anbar province, sources said Tuesday.

An explosive charge went off Tuesday near a well-known restaurant in the upper-middle class neighbourhood of Mansur in west Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding three national guards, independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.

The charge was planted close to an area where Iraqi employees wait for buses to take them to their workplaces, witnesses were cited by VOI as saying.

Police and military forces sealed off the area, while the wounded were ferried to hospital.

Meanwhile, a US marine was killed Monday while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, the US military in Iraq said Tuesday. So far 79 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq during July.

In other news, US-led coalition forces detained nine suspected terrorists during operations targeting the al-Qaeda terrorist network in central and northern Iraq Monday and Tuesday, the US military said.

In the autonomous Kurdistan region, Kurdish security forces in Dohuk city arrested 50 Kurds for waving the Iraqi flag to celebrate the victory of the Iraqi national football team, a police source said Monday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, 'Kurdish security forces seize anybody carrying the Iraqi flag, even for one hour.'

The region's president Massoud Barzani had earlier ordered that the Kurdish flag would replace the Iraqi one in all the cities of the autonomous region.

On Sunday, the Iraqi national football team won the Asian Cup title for the first time in its history.