3 American troops killed on bridge attack.

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BAGHDAD - The suicide explosion that destroyed a vital bridge outside the Iraqi capital killed three American soldiers guarding the span over a main highway, the U.S. military said Monday, as bulldozers worked to clear the shattered concrete.

An Iraqi interpreter also was wounded in the attack Sunday on the overpass on the Iraqi capital's main north-south artery. As rescuers climbed over the debris, U.S. armored vehicles provided cover fire from their cannons after the bombing, which occurred in the area dubbed the "triangle of death" for its frequent Sunni insurgent attacks.

In Sunday's suicide strike on the bridge, it appeared that a northbound driver stopped and detonated his vehicle beside a support pillar, said Lt. Col. Garry Bush, an Army munitions officer who was in a U.S. civilian convoy that arrived two minutes after the blast. The convoy also carried an Associated Press reporter and photographer.

A U.S. Army checkpoint and a tent structure, apparently a rest area, fell into the rubble.

Security guards with private security firm Armor Group International, all ex-military, and others in a passing convoy rushed to the ruins. They found a scene of confusion and worked with a U.S. Army quick reaction force for some 45 minutes to retrieve trapped men, scrambling over the fallen concrete.

At one point, a Bradley armored vehicle with a tow chain pulled a slab off a pinned victim to free him.

Then a shout went up, "Morphine! Morphine!" and a black T-shirt-clad Briton administered painkiller to the freed man.

"Another poor fellow looked crushed beneath a concrete slab," said Donald Campbell, a 40-year-old from Inverness, Scotland.

If I remember correctly, some member previously made a thread about the theory that American helos destroyed a bridge in Baghdad. Pointing out that truck bombs can't destroy bridges. This event pretty much debunk that theory. I forgot who made that thread, think his name started with the letter A.