BAGHDAD - Five American soldiers have died in Iraq, four of whom were killed on Monday in the flashpoint city of Baquba in the troubled province of Diyala, the US military announced.
"Four US soldiers were killed today in Baquba. There were also 12 soldiers injured," a military spokesman told AFP in an email following a query about a single attack in the restive town north of Baghdad.
Thousands of US and Iraqi forces have been pressing a massive assault in Diyala, one of the country's deadliest regions, and its provincial capital Baquba since June in a bid to flush out Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
US forces claim to have killed and captured dozens of militants, but senior commanders have said that most of the top Al-Qaeda leaders in the area fled before the assault began.
The US military said that another American soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an eastern part of the war-torn Iraqi capital on Sunday.
The latest deaths took US losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,670, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
At least 15 soldiers have been killed in August.
08/06/2007 14:44 GMT