IRAQ - Aug 14 - Iraq Suicide Truck Bombers Kill 20 In Yazidis Sect.

Three suicide truck bombers target members of an ancient religious sect in northwestern Iraq, killing at least 20 people, while the crash of an American transport helicopter near an air base in Anbar killed five US service members. Nobody took responsibility for the bombings targeting the sect, the Yazidis. It is a primarily Kurdish group that worships an angel figure considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. But the attacks bore the hallmark of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has been regrouping in the north of the country after being driven from safe havens in Anbar and Diyala Provinces. In a separate attack, a fourth suicide truck bomber struck a major bridge over a canal on the main highway linking Baghdad with the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 10 people, the police said. The bridge was bombed three months ago and only one lane had reopened, according to the police officials. The targeted bridge was the Thiraa Dijla in Taji, a town near a US air base north of the capital. The attacker detonated his payload in the middle of the bridge after avoiding an Iraqi Army checkpoint that was monitoring traffic going in the other direction only, a police officer said. The officer added that 40 meters of the bridge collapsed. Rescue crews tried to recover bodies trapped inside three minibuses and a truck that fell into the canal, which links the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, the officials said. Troops cordoned off the area to evacuate the wounded, the military said. The US service members were killed when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed during a routine test flight after maintenance near Taqaddum air base, according to a military statement. The air base is west of Baghdad in Anbar Province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold that has become calmer in recent months as tribal leaders have joined forces against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Four additional US soldiers were reported killed in two attacks - three in an explosion near their vehicle in the north-western Ninevah Province and another who died of wounds from combat in western Baghdad. In Baghdad, Abdel-Jabar al-Wagaa, the senior assistant to Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, was abducted by more than 50 gunmen wearing security forces uniforms and driving what were believed to be military vehicles, said Assem Jihad, the Oil Ministry spokesman. An Interior Minister official said a top official in the State Oil Marketing Organisation and three directors general in the operation also were kidnapped. The official said five bodyguards were wounded in the raid on the State Oil Marketing Organisation complex in eastern Baghdad. The violence came as 16,000 US and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of Baghdad, targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in Baquba, the military said. The operation began with an air assault and was part of a broader US push to build on successes in Baghdad and surrounding areas by targeting Al Qaeda in Iraq and Iranian-allied Shi'ite militia fighters nationwide.