BAGHDAD, Oct 28: October became the deadliest month for US soldiers in Iraq in nearly two years on Saturday with the announcement of the death of a Marine in the western Anbar province.

A brief military statement said the Marine died from wounds sustained in an attack on Friday in Anbar, the heartland of Iraq’s resistance.

It brought the number of US soldiers killed so far this month to 98, the highest since January last year when 107 were killed, capping a difficult week over Iraq for President George Bush before the Nov 7 congressional elections.

The violence is even harder on Iraqis. The US commander in Iraq said this week 300 Iraqi soldiers were killed during Ramazan.

Gunmen kidnapped 11 Iraqi soldiers at a fake checkpoint north of Baghdad on Saturday, officials said.

That incident drove home the difficulties of building an effective Iraqi security force, a key plank in Mr Bush’s plans for an eventual withdrawal.

Residents in Ramadi said there were clashes in the streets on Saturday and US forces used loudspeakers to warn people to stay in their homes.

Six Iraqis, including three women and two children, were killed in Ramadi on Saturday in what police and a hospital doctor said was a dawn air strike.

HRW CHARGE: New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Saturday hundreds of people every month were abducted, tortured and killed by death squads believed to include security forces.