Six US soldiers killed as October death total hits 90

THE US military said six American soldiers were killed in two bombings yesterday, making October one of the deadliest months for US troops in Iraq this year.

In the worst attack, four Task Force Baghdad soldiers died when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.

A similar bomb hit a patrol near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers from the 29th Brigade Combat Team.

The deaths raised to 2,024 the number of US service members who have died since the war began in 2003.

Yesterday’s attacks also increased the death toll for American forces in October to more than 90, making it the deadliest month in 2005 for US troops in Iraq since January, when 107 were killed.

Elsewhere, US jets bombed two insurgent safe houses near the Syrian border yesterday in an attack aimed at al-Qaida in Iraq, and coalition forces swept through several areas of Baghdad, taking nearly 100 suspected militants into custody, the US command said.

In other violence, two separate mortar attacks by insurgents in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed three people and wounded 11. A car bomb and two drive-by shootings in the capital killed a construction contractor and wounded six people, police said.

On Sunday, gunmen killed Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi, the brother of Shiite Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and a top trade ministry official escaped assassination in another part of the capital.

The US command also said that a Marine died of injuries suffered on Saturday in a roadside bombing west of the capital. US Marines supported by warplanes and helicopters have been raiding targets in towns and villages near Iraq’s desolate border with Syria in an effort to disrupt Iraqi and foreign insurgents.