AFP – Five more US troops have been killed in a series of attacks in Iraq, the military reported Tuesday, taking the losses to 50 in this month alone.
Two marines were killed on Monday in combat operations in the western restive Sunni province of Anbar, the military said.
Another two soldiers were killed and two wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Fallujah also in Anbar on Saturday. The casualties were announced on Tuesday.
Another soldier died when hit by an explosively-formed projectile (EFP), a kind of a roadside bomb, in southern Baghdad on Monday, a separate statement from the military said.
The incident occurred as the soldier’s unit was conducting security patrol in the area. An Iraqi interpreter was also wounded in the attack.
The US military accuses that EFPs are being supplied to Iraqi insurgents and militias by Iranian elements.
Such devices have been blamed for the deaths of at least 170 US service personnel since May 2004, largely in Baghdad and southern Shiite regions of Iraq. The molten metal they emit when they explode can cut through armour.
The latest fatalities took the military’s losses since the invasion to 3,304, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
