BAGHDAD, Sept 4: A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers on Thursday in eastern Baghdad, the US military said. They were the first combat deaths in the capital in a week.

A US statement said the soldiers were on patrol in the mostly Shia area of the city when the blast occurred shortly after noon. The victims’ names were withheld until their families could be notified.

The casualties were the first suffered by the American military in the capital since Aug 28 when a soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. Another soldier died on Tuesday in Baghdad of non-hostile causes, the military said.

That reflects the improved security in Baghdad after the US troop build-up of last year.The latest deaths brought to at least 4,153 the number of US military members who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Also Thursday, the US military arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members during a raid on their home in Baghdad, an official with Baghdad TV said.

The arrest comes two days after American and Iraqi forces detained a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency south of Baghdad.

The cameraman, Omar Husham, 28, was arrested at his house in Azamiyah, said the television official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. His father and two brothers were also detained, the official said.—AP