Roadside Bomb Kills 5 U.S. GIs in Mosul

BAGHDAD — In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted an American patrol with a roadside bomb yesterday and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five American soldiers were killed in the explosion — even as Iraqi troops moved into the northern city to challenge Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi reinforcements, along with helicopters, tanks, and armored vehicles, converged on Mosul for what Prime Minister al-Maliki pledged would be a decisive battle against Al Qaeda in its last major urban stronghold.

The attack on the American patrol — the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished January 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad — raised the Pentagon's January death count to at least 36.

The toll so far is 56% higher than December's 23 American military deaths and marks the first monthly increase since August.

But the figures remain well below monthly death tolls of more than 100 last spring.