BAGHDAD, June 23: Eight more US troops died in Iraq on Saturday, mostly in roadside bombings in Baghdad, as the American military battled suspected Al Qaeda insurgents in other parts of the country.
On Saturday, the military reported deaths of eight troops, including four in a single roadside bomb attack near their vehicle northwest of Baghdad during combat and in which their Iraqi interpreter was wounded.
An airman and three other soldiers were also reported dead on Saturday, taking US losses this month alone to 68, with 3,545 servicemen killed since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
The latest deaths came just days after US commanders deployed a recently completed ‘surge’ of troops to a ring of Al Qaeda strongholds around the capital.
The US and Iraqi forces say they have killed 90 al Qaeda fighters around Baghdad during one of the biggest combined offensives against the Sunni Islamist group since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
US air strikes on Saturday killed seven suspected al Qaeda fighters in Tikrit in Salahuddin province and near the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement.
The US military said on Saturday that 55 Al Qaeda militants had been killed in Operation Arrowhead Ripper, a key plank of the combined offensives, which began in and around the city of Baquba in Diyala province on Tuesday.
