Iraq:The US military yesterday confirmed that 11 soldiers were killed on one of the worst days suffered by US forces in the country.
US military spokesman Lieut Col Christopher Garver said five soldiers were killed in a single roadside bomb blast in Kirkuk province on Wednesday. Details of the other six deaths on Wednesday were not immediately available.
The high daily toll brought to 30 the number of US soldiers killed since the start of the month and underlined the human cost of the US deployment in Iraq, where rampant violence kills scores of Iraqis every day.
The Sunni insurgency continues unabated. Some 2,920 US soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion in 2003.
October was the deadliest month for US troops in nearly two years, when 106 service members died.
The Iraq Study Group, which spent nine months exploring alternatives for US strategy, has called on the US military to strengthen efforts to train Iraqi forces by boosting its forces embedded with Iraqi troops to 20,000 from about 4,000.
"The primary mission of US forces in Iraq should evolve to one of supporting the Iraqi army," the report said.
- (Reuters)