Four U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Gunmen shot and killed the deputy of Iraqi Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani near his home in Najaf, Iraq.

Police said the deputy was killed late Thursday, Alsumaria reported Friday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of four U.S. soldiers. Three were killed and several others wounded when their patrol was targeted by a roadside bomb. The fourth was killed in Baghdad combat operations.

An Iraqi police source said Friday Jalil Kakaei, a leading member of the country's Kurdish Democratic Party, had been targeted by assassins, but a bomb placed under his car in Kirkuk failed to create more than material damage, KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, reported Friday.

The same source told KUNA the bodies of five brothers were found in the village of Hakam, southwest of Kirkuk. The source said the brothers were killed on their way home from work and another brother, who is only 5-years-old, was found alive near the bodies.