5 U.S., 2 Georgian Troops Die in Iraq, Officials Say

BAGHDAD, May 4 -- The American-led coalition announced Saturday the deaths of seven troops, as the fight for control of the capital's Sadr City district continued with missiles aimed at Shiite militiamen striking near a hospital.

The Turkish military also said that it killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as part of its campaign to drive the fighters out of the Kurdish region.

The deaths involved three of the distinct major fronts that constitute the war in Iraq: the battle against Shiite fighters in strongholds of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr; the fighting against Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq; and the combat between the Turkish government and rebels in northern Iraq.

The most serious incident involving military casualties occurred Friday when four Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in western Anbar province, one of the hearts of the Sunni insurgency, the U.S. military said. Another soldier died that evening from a roadside bomb that struck a patrol in eastern Baghdad, which includes Sadr City. And the Georgian military announced that two servicemen were killed Friday south of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported.

The Sadr City air strike deepened the tensions in that vast Shiite slum, where there have been sharp clashes between American and Iraqi troops and fighters loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The fighting was triggered by an offensive launched by the Iraqi government last month against militias, especially Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The U.S. military said that it struck a "criminal element command-and-control center" in Sadr City with precision-controlled munitions at about 10 a.m. on Saturday. It said intelligence reports indicated that "criminal elements," a term the military generally uses to refer to Iranian-backed Shiite militias, had used the site to plan and coordinate attacks against Iraqi and U.S. troops and civilians.

Television footage and eyewitness accounts indicated that the missiles fell close to a hospital in the city, wounding civilians and damaging ambulances. U.S. military officials have repeatedly blamed Shiite fighters for operating within densely populated areas and said they should be held responsible for any civilian deaths caused by American missile strikes.

An Iraqi government delegation has been meeting in Iran with officials from that country to urge them to help stop the violence in Iraq. The Iraqi officials presented the Iranians with evidence that they said showed Iran's involvement in supplying weapons to militias and generally sowing instability.

Haider al-Adari, a Shiite legislator from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party and a member of the delegation, said in an telephone interview from Iran that the trip was "very successful" because Iran agreed to cooperate on putting an end to weapons smuggling and the training of militant groups. But he said Iran did not admit to playing a role in fomenting the violence.

"They have denied everything," Adari said Saturday. "But we clearly expressed our concern to them."

Special correspondent Zaid Sabah contributed to this report.