A US soldier was killed and another was wounded in a grenade attack on a military convoy south of Baghdad today, the US military said.
A US statement said the two soldiers had been evacuated by road after the attack in Khan Azad, 20 kilometres south of the capital. One was dead on arrival at hospital.
It was the latest in a spate of attacks on US forces in which 19 soldiers have been killed since President George W. Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1st.
The assault came less than a day after an Iraqi oil pipeline was set ablaze near the town of Hit, about 140 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, by a late-night explosion blamed by an Iraqi Oil Ministry official on sabotage.
Two US soldiers were wounded in the same area yesterday afternoon when their vehicle detonated a landmine.