BAQOUBA, Iraq — Three soldiers were seriously injured when a booby-trapped house exploded Sunday in Diyala province, military officials said.
All were flown to Balad for treatment and were listed in stable condition Monday.
The soldiers were on patrol in the town of Mullayah northeast of Baghdad when a house they were entering blew up. Names of the soldiers, who are part of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, are being withheld pending notification of their families.
"Everybody knows each other here, so it’s been a tough day," said 1st Lt. Jeff Chase, who is part of the unit.
Booby-trapped houses have been a widespread problem for U.S. soldiers in Diyala. Recently, there has been an uptick in such bombings, Chase said.
Over the past year, insurgents have used house bombs in Diyala to kill U.S. soldiers and terrorize civilians. In January, six soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by a house bomb in Agadat.
Across the province, entire towns lie abandoned after insurgents cleared out the populace and rigged all of the buildings with explosives.
Monday’s bombing was the second tragic event of the brigade’s Iraq tour, which begin late September. Two soldiers were killed Oct. 16 when rockets slammed into Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqouba.
