US deaths in Iraq now 1 981
2005-10-20 11:37
Baghdad - Four United States soldiers have been killed in two attacks in Iraq and a fifth died from a "non-hostile gunshot wound," the US military said on Thursday.
Three US soldiers were killed and one injured late on Wednesday when their patrol hit a a roadside bomb in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, it said in a statement.
Further north near Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a fourth soldier died when his vehicle caught fire on Wednesday. Two wounded were evacuated to a hospital.
In a base near the northern city of Mosul, a fifth "died from a non-hostile gunshot wound" on Tuesday, the military said.
The latest deaths brought to 1 981 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Since Saturday, the day of a largely peaceful vote on Iraq's new constitution, 12 US military personnel have been killed in fighting with insurgents.
- AFP