2 U.S. soldiers die of non-combat injuries

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Two U.S. soldiers died of non-combat injuries on Monday, the first U.S. fatalities in May, the U.S. army said on Tuesday. “Two U.S. Soldiers died of non-combat-related injuries in Iraq yesterday in unrelated incidents,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense,” it added. The deaths have brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to 4,397. The incident also increases to 27 the number of fatalities in 2010, including eight in April, seven in March, four of them killed in “non-combat” incidents, and five in February, including four in “non-combat” incidents. Five were killed in January 2010 and four in December 2009. U.S. fatalities began to decrease since early 2009: sixteen soldiers were killed in January, 17 in February and nine in March. The death toll, however, grew in April to reach 19 and then to 25 in May, including five shot down by a fellow soldier in a shooting incident inside a camp near Baghdad International Airport. Fifteen were killed in June, including five in “non-combat” incidents. Some 486 U.S. soldiers were killed in 2003, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005, 822 in 2006 and a record high of 904 in 2007. The toll went down dramatically in 2008 to reach 314. Still, November 2004, the month that saw fierce clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen in the restive city of al-Falluja, Diala province, is the month with the highest U.S. deaths: 137. SH (S) 5