US war deaths near 4,500 as soldiers killed in rocket attack

Col Barry Johnson, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, confirmed that rockets hit the troops’ unit but declined to give their names or say where the incident happened in southern Iraq, pending notification of next of kin.

About 47,000 US troops remain in Iraq, down from 166,000 in October 2007.

Under a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, all US forces will withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year but Shiite militias in Iraq’s south linked to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have vowed to continue targeting them until they go.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he sees no need to change the agreement but said he would leave that decision to parliament if lawmakers vote to keep them.

Yesterday’s deaths raises to at least 4,443 the number of US military personnel who have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

The last attack to leave more than one US service member dead was on January 15, when an Iraqi army soldier opened fire on US troops and killed two during a training exercise in Mosul, located 225 miles (360 kilometres) north-west of Baghdad.

AP 031352 APR 11