U.S. soldier killed in Salah al-Din

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A U.S. soldier was killed in an attack on a military patrol in Salah al-Din province on Saturday, the third announced dead in March 2009, the U.S. army said on Sunday. “The soldier died of wounds he sustained in an attack on a U.S. patrol in Salah al-Din on Saturday,” according to a U.S. army statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The statement did not give more details. The announced death increases to 4,256 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. U.S. deaths in February 2009 were 16, five of them said to have died of non-combat causes and four in a suicide car bomb attack in Mosul on February 9. November 2004 is still a monthly record high with 137 soldiers killed in violent clashes between the U.S. forces and armed groups in Falluja city in the predominantly Sunni western Iraq province of al-Anbar. Some 486 U.S. soldiers were killed in 2003, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005, 822 in 2006 and 2007 was a record high of 904 dead U.S. servicemen. The number went down dramatically in 2008 to reach 314. AmR (P) 1