Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier in west Baghdad

A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier Wednesday in Baghdad, making May the deadliest month for the American military in Iraq since September.

Also Wednesday, the government’s watchdog agency announced that nearly 1,000 arrest warrants had been issued this year as part of a crackdown on corruption. They include warrants for about 50 senior civil servants, the agency said.

The fatal attack occurred two days after a blast struck a U.S. convoy west of the capital, killing three Americans, two civilians and a soldier.

The increase in deaths comes as U.S. forces face a June 30 deadline to pull back from urban areas as part of a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that took effect this year.

At least 20 American service members have died so far this month, compared with 25 in September. The 20 deaths include five service members killed in a May 11 shooting at a mental health clinic in Baghdad. Sgt. John M. Russell has been charged with murder in the case.

April had at least 19 American troop deaths, more than double the nine killed in March, which was the lowest since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

In Wednesday’s incident, the U.S. soldier died of injuries suffered when a bomb exploded near a patrol in a western section of the capital, the military said.

In all, at least 4,302 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war, according to the independent website icasualties.org.

Four U.S. civilians also have been killed in Iraq since Friday.

They included a top reconstruction official who once headed the Illinois Commerce Commission and a Defense Department employee working for the U.S. Embassy. They were killed in a roadside bombing Monday near Fallouja.

A defense contractor died in a rocket or mortar attack near the U.S. Embassy and another was found stabbed in his car Friday.