Two American security contractors were killed and a third wounded in a roadside bomb attack south of the Iraqi capital, the US Embassy said today.
The three were working for Blackwater Security, a North Carolina-based contracting firm that provides security for State Department officials in Iraq. They were attacked on the main road to Hillah, south of Baghdad, US Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said.
In other violence, a US soldier was gunned down late Saturday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The death brought to at least 1,514 the number of US military personnel killed since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Foreign contractors, too, are often targeted by anti-US guerrillas. At least 232 American civilian security and reconstruction contractors had been killed in Iraq through 2004, according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
The Blackwater employees killed Saturday were believed to be traveling in a black Chevrolet Suburban, a foreign security official in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity. The road south of Baghdad traverses an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks.
"I can confirm that two American employees of Blackwater Security were killed early yesterday afternoon on the road to Hillah when an IED exploded next to their vehicle, Callahan said today.
AP