Five American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings in Iraq yesterday in a further sign of a resurgence in attacks in some parts of Baghdad.
The US military said today that four soldiers were killed by a blast while they were patrolling northwest of the Iraqi capital. Another soldier died in an explosion near his vehicle and three others wounded near Tikrit in northern Iraq.
So far this month 13 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, according to icasualties.org, an independent web site that tracks military deaths there.
A total of 3,957 American soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2003. Last month 40 were killed, the highest number of US fatalities since September but much fewer than the months from late 2006 to mid-2007, when fighting among majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Muslims took Iraq to the brink of civil war.
Attacks are down by 60 per cent since last June after the US boosted its force with 30,000 extra troops. A decision by Sunni Arab tribes to turn against al Qaeda and a six-month ceasefire by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia also helped reduce the attacks.
But violence persists, with US commanders saying al Qaeda in Iraq is the greatest threat to security, while some rogue members of the Mehdi Army have ignored the ceasefire.
Washington has accused Iran of supplying Shi'ite militias with sophisticated, armour-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs). Iran denies the claim.
US military spokesman Major Mark Cheadle today was unable to confirm whether yesterday's attack in Baghdad had involved an EFP.
A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank has warned that the Mehdi Army should not be provoked into widespread violence, saying it was "unassailable" in strongholds in Baghdad and mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq.
The ICG report said it was "fanciful" to suppose the defeat of the Mehdi Army, which has tens of thousands of fighters.
Brigadier-General Will Grimsley, deputy commander of US forces in Baghdad, played down an apparent increase in action by "rogue" Mehdi Army members.
"On occasion we see some resurgence of activity on the part of these rogue or special groups and we'll counter those just like we will any other destabilising element," he said.