VOA标准英语2008年-Bomb Kills 6 Iraqis, 4 Americans and Italian in

（单词翻译）

U.S. and Iraqi officials say a bomb has exploded inside a local council building in Baghdad's Sadr City district, killing¹ 10 people, including four Americans. VOA's Suzanne Presto² reports on the attack from the northern city of Irbil.
　
Hassan Shammah, left, and Qasim al Sudani, Sadr city council members injured in attack, are seen on beds of hospital in Sadr city, 24 Jun 2008

A U.S. military spokesman for the Baghdad area, Lieutenant³ Colonel Steve Stover, says it appears that a bomb was planted inside the District Advisory⁴ Council building in a southern neighborhood of Sadr City.

Lieutenant Colonel Stover tells VOA that two U.S. soldiers and two civilians⁵ who served alongside Coalition⁶ forces were killed in the attack. He says one Coalition soldier and three members of the local advisory council were also wounded.

The military says the explosion occurred during the fourth meeting of the Iraqi-led district council.

"We believe that the target was not only the American soldiers themselves, but that there was a high ranking, what we call a DAC, but which means district advisory council member who was the target of the attack. He had been helping⁷ coalition force soldiers to improve the quality of life for his own residents," he said.

Lieutenant Colonel Stover says the high ranking council member was not among those killed.

Lieutenant Colonel Stover says coalition forces caught one suspect fleeing the scene on a motorbike, and two others were caught at the scene immediately after the blast. He says all three tested positive for explosive residue⁸.

Lieutenant Colonel Stover says the blast will not deter⁹ the military.

"Having talked to the soldiers who are on the ground there, that we are definitely going to continue to remain resolved, to support the Iraqi people in the area, to ensure that they have a better quality of life and that this terrorist act is not going to sit there and hinder us in any way," added Lieutenant Colonel Stover.

Eastern Baghdad's Sadr City was the scene of a major Iraqi-led offensive earlier this year. Hundreds of people were killed in the Shi'ite militant¹⁰ stronghold after fighting flared¹¹ there between militants¹² and soldiers in late March. But the area has been largely quiet since mid-May, when anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a truce¹³ in the neighborhood.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense¹⁴ said violence in Iraq has fallen to a four-year low, but it cautioned that Iraq's security gains are "fragile, reversible and uneven¹⁵."