Iraq's bloodiest month for US troops since Fallujah(2 more Soldier killed Wed) [View All]

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military announced Thursday, confirming that May had become the deadliest month for American forces in two-and-a-half years.

Meanwhile, the hunt was continuing for five Britons who were snatched at gunpoint from a finance ministry building in the capital earlier this week.

The soldiers were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb hit their foot patrol and brought US casualties for the month to 116, the most since November 2004, when marines fought a fierce battle to retake the city of Fallujah.

Unlike at Fallujah, US forces have fought no major set-piece enounters in May, but instead have been fanning out through Baghdad and a belt of flashpoint towns around the capital in a bid to quell sectarian violence.

"First and foremost, it's been a tough month," Brigadier General Perry Wiggins, deputy director of regional operations with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Defence Department briefing on Wednesday.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070531/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_070531085006