41 deaths in Iraq yesterday emerge

Three US soldiers died yesterday of wounds sustained in combat in the western Anbar province, ther US military said in a statement…

Three US soldiers died yesterday of wounds sustained in combat in the western Anbar province, ther US military said in a statement today.

The deaths bring to at least 14 the number of US servicemen killed in Iraq in the past three days.

An Iraqi policeman checks the identification papers of the driver of a vehicle carrying a coffin at a checkpoint in Baghdad today
An Iraqi policeman checks the identification papers of the driver of a vehicle carrying a coffin at a checkpoint in Baghdad today

Anbar province, a Sunni Arab insurgency stronghold, is the deadliest place for US troops in Iraq.

Meanwhile, it emerged today that a US air strike killed 8 people near Baghdad yesterday.

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US forces were conducting a raid in the Arab Jbour area near Baghdad when they came under heavy fire and had to called in air support.

"Eight terrorists barricaded themselves inside one of the buildings and continued to fire at the ground forces," a US military statement said.

"Coalition aircraft dropped precision bombs on the building, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of the eight terrorists," it added.

Also yesterday, US forces said they killed 13 insurgents in an air strike targeting a "senior foreign fighter facilitator" northeast of the town of Ameriya, near Falluja, in an area where there is a strong presence of Sunni insurgents.

A doctor at a local hospital said 30 bodies, including those of seven children, had been brought in from the village of Zaidan, near Ameriya.