Iraq bomb edges US death toll near 4,000

Published on Saturday 22 March 2008 18:46

THREE US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq yesterday, pushing the US death toll up toward the 4,000 mark in a bloody start to the sixth year of the war.

The three deaths, which brought the number of US soldiers killed since the invasion in 2003 to 3,996, came just days after President George Bush said the country was on track to victory in Iraq.

In a speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, Bush acknowledged the "high cost in lives and treasure" but said a US troop build-up in Iraq had reduced violence there and opened the door to a major victory in the war on terror.

The US military said the three soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up their vehicle northwest of Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians also died in the attack.

Roadside bombs are the biggest killers of US soldiers in Iraq.

On Friday, a US soldier died from wounds sustained from "indirect fire", a term commonly used by the military to refer to a mortar or rocket attack.

The US military has credited the deployment of 30,000 extra US troops and a rebellion by Sunni tribal leaders against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for a 60% drop in violence across Iraq.

Tribal leaders have formed a mostly Sunni movement of some 90,000 men known as "awakening councils", or "concerned local citizen groups" (CLCs). The US military pays them $300 (150) a month to patrol their neighbourhoods and man checkpoints. Six CLC members were killed yesterday in a US helicopter strike in Salahuddin province, 60 miles north of Baghdad.