Suicide blast kills 9 U.S. troops

Nine American soldiers were killed Monday and 20 were wounded when an attacker blew up his car near their patrol base in Iraq’s Diyala province, the U.S. military announced.

One Iraqi civilian also was wounded in the suicide bombing. Fifteen of the injured soldiers returned to duty after treatment.

The U.S. military also announced that an American soldier died Monday in Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

A British soldier was killed Monday in Basra, in southern Iraq, by small-arms fire.

The names of the casualties were not immediately released.

At least 3,332 American and 145 British troops have died since the U.S.-led war began in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks deaths and injuries in the Iraq theater.

The attack in Diyala was far from the worst loss of life among U.S. troops in a single incident.

On Jan. 26, 2005, 30 Marines and a sailor died in the crash of a CH-53E transport helicopter near Rutbah.

On Dec. 21, 2004, 18 Americans were killed by a suicide bomber at a base near Mosul.

On Nov. 15, 2003, 17 died when two Black Hawk helicopters collided near Mosul, and 13 days earlier, 16 were killed when a Chinook transport helicopter was shot down near Fallouja.