BAGHDAD (AFX) - Five US troops were killed in western Iraq yesterday, the US military said, as coalition forces pushed an assault in the rebel heartland close to the Syrian border. A marine died in a bomb attack in Karabilah during Operation "Iron Fist", one of two large-scale anti-insurgency sweeps in the area, a statement said today. Three other soldiers assigned to the marines were killed in another bomb blast in Haqlaniyah, also in western Iraq, it added, without providing further details.
A fifth soldier died of gunshots wounds near Taqaddum, the military said, giving no details, but adding that the incident was under investigation.
The latest deaths bring to 1,931 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on Pentagon figures.
Another five civilian Defence Department employees have also been killed.