Suicide Bombers Kill Five in Northern Iraq

Iraqi officials say five people were killed and several others wounded in suicide bombings in northern Iraq Wednesday.

Officials say four were killed when a bomber struck a crowded area in Tal Afar. A child was killed in a separate attack in the same area.

South of Baghdad, in Mahmoudiya, at least one person was killed and three others were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a gasoline station.

The U.S. military also announced that two American soldiers died Tuesday from combat wounds suffered in Anbar province.

On Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi troops fought hours-long battles with insurgents in Baghdad's Haifa Street area, a known stronghold of Sunni insurgents. Iraqi officials said 50 insurgents were killed.

In other news, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants - Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar - should be delayed.

The two were sentenced to death with Saddam Hussein for involvement in the killings of 148 Shi'ites in the village of Dujail in the 1980s.

No date has been announced for their execution.

Saddam was executed December 30. Footage of his hanging, recorded on a cellphone, showed him being taunted before the execution. - VOA News