Roadside bombings and gun battles across Iraq killed seven U.S. soldiers and two Marines, the U.S. military said Wednesday. In the deadliest incident, three Multinational Division-Center soldiers were killed and two wounded when their patrol was hit by a series of roadside bombs Tuesday, the military said in a statement. The statement did not say where the attack, which also wounded an interpreter, happened. Two Task Force-Lightning soldiers were killed in Baghdad Province when an explosion blew up near their vehicle on Tuesday, the military said. Another three soldiers were wounded in the incident. Two U.S. Marines assigned to Multinational Forces-West were also killed Tuesday in combat operations in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the military said. A roadside bomb hit an army foot patrol Tuesday southwest of Baghdad, killing a Task Force Marne soldier. Another soldier was wounded in the blast, the military said. A Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier was also killed Tuesday when his patrol was attacked with small arms fire in western Baghdad, the military said. The military declined to release the names of those killed pending notification of their relatives. The deaths make at least 3,431 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
