U.S. Toll in Iraq at 645
The U.S. military said it had suffered five more combat deaths in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing to 645 the number of U.S. service members killed since the start of the war to oust Saddam Hussein.
The military statement said two Marines had been killed in western Iraq, one Wednesday and one Thursday. Marines have been fighting intense battles in the cities of Fallouja and Ramadi.
It said a soldier was killed by gunfire at a checkpoint in Samarra, north of Baghdad, late Wednesday.
Thursday morning, a 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed in an attack involving a roadside bomb, a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire north of Baghdad. One more soldier died Thursday of wounds suffered in a bombing Sunday in Mosul.
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