BAGHDAD, Nov 1: The US military announced the death of another soldier in Iraq on Tuesday, bringing October losses to 94, the fourth biggest of the conflict, after a car bomb killed 18 people in the normally quiet southern city of Basra.

The death of the soldier in a roadside bombing near Fallujah on Monday brought the overall US toll to at least 2,022 since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally.

Monday evening’s car bomb in Basra ripped through a market packed with shoppers.

Eighteen people died and 59 were wounded according to a new, lower toll, the province’s chief medical officer Raad Daud Salman said, while governor Mohammed Mosbah al-Wali added that two suspects had been arrested.

“The owner of the car bomb was arrested early on Tuesday a few hours after the attack, followed by that of the operation’s planner, who is Iraqi, from Basra,” he said without providing details.—AFP