Two US service members were killed in central Iraq, the military said on Sunday.
A Marine assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, of the II Marine Expeditionary Force was killed on Saturday by an explosion while conducting combat operations in the city of Hadithah, 220km northwest of Baghdad, the military said in a statement from Camp Fallujah.
A soldier assigned to 1st Corp. Support Command was killed Sunday when a bomb exploded around 6:45pm near the central city of Beiji, the military said in a statement from Tikrit.
PHOTO: AP
The military said coalition forces secured the site near Beiji, about 250km north of Baghdad, and were conducting an investigation.
The names of the service members were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
As of Saturday, at least 1,533 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, the US military said yesterday that some 50 insurgents were wounded and at least one was killed during last week's attack on Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. It refused to say whether any militants were taken into custody.
Saturday's attack included a car bomb, gunfire, mortars and rocket propelled grenades lobbed at the prison west of Baghdad, injuring 44 US service members and 13 prisoners.
Abu Ghraib was at the center of a prisoner abuse scandal last year that erupted after photographs became public that showed soldiers humiliating inmates sexually, including having them pile naked in a human pyramid.
An Internet statement by al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility Sunday for the attack. The claim could not be independently verified.
The insurgents attacked in multiple locations at the same time, focusing on two guard towers and then using the car bomb to try to penetrate a gate, the statement said. They failed to enter the prison, and no inmates escaped.
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