One US soldier killed near Baghdad
(Reuters)
Updated: 2004-09-07 14:23

A US army truck burns on the motorway west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on September 7, 2004. A roadside bomb blast near Baghdad late on Monday killed one US soldier and wounded another, the US military said on Tuesday. The attack will raise the official Pentagon US death toll to at least 989 since the start of the war in Iraq. [Reuters] A US army truck burns on the motorway west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on September 7, 2004.

A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Monday night when a roadside bomb exploded as their military convoy passed by on a road near Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.

The soldiers, whose names have not been released, were assigned to the U.S. Army's 13th Corps Support Command.

The latest death brings to 994 the number of American troops killed since the start of the Iraq war last year.

Earlier Monday, seven American Marines and three Iraqi guardsmen were killed by a suicide car bomb as they patrolled on the outskirts of Falluja, the U.S. military said.

The explosions sent the engine from the car used in the bombing "a good distance" from the site, The Associated Press reported, quoting a military official on condition of anonymity.

Two Humvees were destroyed in the attack, witnesses told the AP.

The car pulled up alongside the Marines' military transport vehicle before it exploded, military authorities in Falluja said.

The attack marked the largest number of casualties U.S. forces have suffered in a single incident since fighting in the spring near Ramadi.

Falluja is a Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad and the scene of repeated flare-ups.

Also Monday, the Coalition Press Information Center said some 240 improvised explosive devices have been found and disabled in the holy Wadi al-Salem cemetery and along roads in the Old City of Najaf.

At the request of local leaders, U.S. Marines have been working with Iraqi personnel to clear weapons caches and explosive devices hidden by the militia of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the center reports.

Iraqi security forces said that locals and cemetery caretakers have joined in the cleanup effort, moving weapons caches alongside the cemetery's roads for pickup by Iraqi forces.

Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia fought U.S. and Iraqi forces around the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf for three weeks in August.

A peace deal was negotiated with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that would grant al-Sadr his freedom from murder charges in a bid to secure peace in Najaf.

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