Suicide truck bomb kills 5 U.S. troops

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Under a hail of gunfire, a suicide bomber charged a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Friday, detonating a truck laden with explosives and killing five U.S. troops and two Iraqi policemen.

The U.S. military gave the death toll in a statement and said the attack in the restive city of Mosul was the single deadliest incident for U.S. soldiers in Iraq in over a year.

Mosul, some 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, is one of two regions of Iraq where U.S. forces are still locked in major combat operations against al Qaeda and other insurgents, despite a drop in violence elsewhere in Iraq over the past year.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said the authorities had been warned of such an attack but were unsure when it might happen.

U.S. and Iraqi forces opened heavy fire on the truck after it ignored a request to stop at a checkpoint close to an Iraqi police base in southwest Mosul.

"The truck exploded 50 meters before reaching its target (the base)," Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf said, adding that only one Iraqi policeman was killed in the attack. He could not confirm the U.S. casualties.

"There was more than 1,000 kg of explosives in the truck, which leveled three buildings (near the base)," he added.

The explosion left a huge crater and damaged buildings over 100 meters away from the blast site, an Iraqi policeman said.

Two U.S. soldiers and 20 members of the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the blast, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said the blast wounded 70 people and destroyed five Iraqi and two U.S. armored vehicles.