[Justin Zaremba](/columnists/Justin+Zaremba)  
6/24/2008

Four Americans were killed by a bomb explosion on Tuesday in Sadr City, Baghdad.

On Tuesday, an explosion caused by a bomb inside a district council building killed four Americans, six Iraqis, and an Italian citizen employed by the Department of Defense in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported.  
  
According to a spokesman for the council, the explosion occurred around 9.30 a.m. as four council officials were gathering in a room for a meeting with five Americans to discuss the election of senior local council members.  
  
The United States ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, identified one of the victims as Steven Farley. Farley was an employee of the State Department who was working with a provincial reconstruction team.  
  
In addition to Farley, two Army soldiers and two civilian employees of the Department of Defense were killed as well.  
  
According to the military, a third American soldier was wounded in the attack.  
  
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deaths of the civilian employees were "a terrible reminder of the dangers" faced by Americans working in Iraq, the Associated Press reported.  
  
A suspect in the attack had been detained after he was caught "leaving the scene and tested positive for explosive residue," a spokesperson for the U.S. military stated.  
  
These deaths follow an incident on Monday in which a security guard for an Iraqi politician grabbed his Kalashnikov automatic rifle and opened fire on at least a half-dozen American soldiers, killing two of them. Monday's attack took place during a meeting with Iraqi officials in a village southeast of Baghdad.