Attack kills three Iraqi volunteers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents took aim at volunteer security forces working alongside U.S. and Iraqi troops Saturday, killing at least three and injuring 13 others in a string of gunfire and bomb attacks.

Also Saturday, U.S. forces announced the death of an American soldier, and Iraqi officials said they had arrested four suspects in connection with a bomb blast this week that killed 28 people in southern Iraq.

South of Baghdad, the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division announced the launch of a new offensive aimed at flushing al-Qaida in Iraq forces out of areas in Babil province.

The aim of the operation is to establish a new patrol base for U.S. and Iraqi troops in the area around Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of the capital, and to supplement troops with so-called Concerned Local Citizen volunteers.

But Saturday’s attacks showed how vulnerable the new allies are. In northeast Baghdad’s Adhamiya neighborhood, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold, two volunteers died and 10 were injured when a bomb exploded next to their checkpoint.

Another volunteer died about 50 miles north of Baghdad when gunmen raked his checkpoint with bullets.