Six Americ an troops were killed on Wednesday when a house rigged with explosives blew up north of Baghdad during a new U.S.-Iraqi offensive targeting al Qaeda fighters in Iraq, the U.S. military said. According to Reuters, the military gave few details of the incident but said the six soldiers were killed by a "house-borne improvised explosive device" during operations on Wednesday in Diyala.
The three other soldiers were killed in Salahuddin province, also north of Baghdad, another target area of the new U.S.-led offensive against al Qaeda that was launched on Tuesday.
WHO report
Meanwhile, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) research published on Wednesday, some 151,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the three years following the U.S.-led invasion of their country. The new study, which said violent deaths could have ranged from 104,000 to 223,000 between March 2003 and June 2006, is the most comprehensive since the war started.
"There are a lot of uncertainties in making such estimates," WHO statistician Mohamed Ali, who co-authored the study, told reporters on a conference call. According to Reuters, he said insecurity made parts of Baghdad and Anbar provinces unreachable for those conducting the survey, which included questions about other topics including pregnancy and disease.
On his part, Iraqi Health Minister Saleh al-Hasnawi described the latest WHO report as "very sound" and said the survey indicated "a massive death toll since the beginning of the conflict". "I believe in these numbers," he told the conference call.
More than half of the violent deaths documented in the WHO report occurred in Baghdad. An average of 128 Iraqis suffered violent deaths every day in the first year following the invasion. The next year, an average of 115 were killed daily and 126 died from violence each day in the third year after the war started.
Some 3,915 U.S. and 174 British forces have died since the war started. Between 4,900 and 6,375 Iraqi military personnel are thought to have died, Reuters cited the report as saying.
