Five Iraqi soldiers killed by roadside bomb -police

BAGHDAD, July 16 (Reuters) Five Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in northeast Baghdad today, police said.

One soldier was also wounded in the pre-dawn attack on their vehicle convoy in the Boubal-Shama neighbourhood, an old commercial and industrial district.

The area is near a highway linking the capital with Diyala province, where thousands of US and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation to drive out Islamist al Qaeda militants.

Two people were also killed and six wounded by two mortar rounds that struck a residential neighbourhood in southern Baghdad called Abudsheer. The area is a Shi'ite enclave in Dora, a mainly Sunni district and al Qaeda stronghold in the city.

Reuters SW VV1140