Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as US and Iraqi troops captured two senior Al Qaeda gunmen in northern Iraq.

The failure of the latest Arab League mission to get Lebanon’s Western-backed government and the Iran- and Syria-supported opposition to talk together shows that outsiders control the country’s destiny, analysts said on Saturday.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Saturday when a booby trap set by Fateh Islam gunmen exploded in the Nahr Bared Palestinian refugee camp, an army spokesman said.