Roadside bombs killed five American troops in Iraq on Sunday, including four in a single strike in a province northeast of the capital, the military said.
Four U.S. soldiers died and two others were injured, according to a statement, when a blast hit their patrol in Diyala province, the AP reported. A roadside bomb also killed a soldier and injured two others as they were checking for bombs on a road in northwestern Baghdad, the military said.
Sunday's deaths raised to at least 3,239 the members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.
Meanwhile, the departing U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told The New York Times in an interview published Monday that he held talks last year with people believed to represent Sunni armed groups. It was an effort, he said, to bring them into the political fold.
"There were discussions with the representatives of various groups in the aftermath of the elections, and during the formation of the government before the Samarra incident, and some discussions afterwards as well," Khalilzad said. The meetings - some of which took place in Jordan - started early last year and included self-described representatives of the Islamic Army of Iraq and the 1920 Revolution Brigades, American and Iraqi officials told The Times.
