The U.S. army reported Wednesday that nine American soldiers had been killed in bombings and combat, raising to 67 the number of U.S. troops killed in October. A roadside bomb also killed a provincial police intelligence chief in southern Iraq early Wednesday, police said.
The eight U.S. soldiers and one Marine were killed by roadside bombs and enemy fire in and around Baghdad on Tuesday, the military reported.
Four American troops were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. The blast from the improvised explosive struck the soldiers' vehicle at about 6:50 a.m. Tuesday morning. The U.S. military did not provide any more details.
Three soldiers attached to Task Force Lightning, assigned to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were killed and one wounded during combat in Diyala province east of Baghdad. Another soldier died around 9:30 a.m. when suspected insurgents attacked his patrol in northern Baghdad. A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 also died from injuries sustained during fighting in Al Anbar Province, it said.
Close to 70 U.S. soldiers have been killed so far in October. According to Reuters, American commanders have attributed the rise in death toll this month to more aggressive patrolling by U.S. forces in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces were back patrolling the streets of the predominantly Shiite city of Balad on Tuesday after five days of sectarian violence killed 95 people.
Elsewhere in Iraq, 36 people died Tuesday in attacks and 16 more corpses were found in the capital, their hands and legs bound and showing signs of torture, police reported.
