U.S. military reports 7 soldiers killed

BAGHDAD -- Bombings killed seven U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and a southern city, the U.S. military said Sunday, and the country's Sunni vice president spoke out against a proposed oil law, clouding the future of a key benchmark for assuring continued U.S. support for the government.

Six of the soldiers were killed Saturday in a bombing in western Baghdad, the military said in a statement. Their interpreter was also killed.

The other soldier died in a blast Saturday in Diwaniyah, a mostly Shiite city 80 miles south of the capital where radical Shiite militias operate.

Those deaths brought the number of American troops killed in Iraq since Friday to at least 15. So far, at least 71 U.S. forces have died in Iraq this month -- most of them from bombs.

Elsewhere, several explosions were heard from the area around the Green Zone in central Baghdad, but it was unclear if any were inside the U.S.-controlled area, which has increasingly come under mortar and rocket fire. The American military referred questions about the explosions to the U.S. Embassy, which did not immediately respond.

A soldier attached to Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division watched a road through binoculars Sunday during a patrol in Quarghuli, Iraq. Three soldiers were missing after an attack on their convoy eight days ago. (Maya Alleruzzo ~ Associated Press)

In recent months, U.S. officials have been stepping up pressure on Iraq's religiously and ethnically based parties to reach agreements on a range of political and economic initiatives to encourage national reconciliation and bring an end to the fighting.

Progress in meeting those benchmarks is considered crucial to continued U.S. support for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government at a time when Democrats in Congress are pressing for an end to the war. Those benchmarks include enactment of a new law to manage the country's vast oil wealth and distribute revenues among the various groups.