Three soldiers killed by IED detonation, other three during combat in Anbar as suicide bomb kills two.

February 20, 2007

BAGHDAD - Nine more US soldiers have died in Iraq, the military said Monday in several statements.

A US unit was on patrol southwest of Baghdad Monday "when an improvised explosive device detonated, killing three soldiers and wounding two others," a statement said, using the military term for a homemade bomb.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber attacked a US outpost north of Baghdad, detonating an explosives-laden vehicle that killed two soldiers and wounded 17 others, the military said.

Separately, the military announced the deaths "in combat operations" of three marines and a soldier over three days in the western province of Anbar.

An Iraqi security official said that the attack early Monday was aimed at a US base in Tarmiyah, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital.

"Insurgents initiated the attack on the outpost with a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonation," the US statement said. "The attack site has been secured and wounded soldiers have been evacuated."

The deaths brought to 3,138 the number of US servicemen and women to have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures.

Suicide car bombs are a hallmark of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency and are often used in attacks on US patrols and Iraqi troops. It is rare, however, for bombers to be able to strike fixed American positions.

The attacks came as thousands of US and Iraqi troops continued a massive security operation in nearby Baghdad, where they are attempting to quell a sectarian war between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.