Insurgents killed two US soldiers and wounded five others near the flashpoint city of Falluja today in an ambush that involved a bomb and rocket-propelled grenades.
Soldiers at the scene said a vehicle apparently loaded with explosives blew up as convoy of US Marines and Army personnel passed by, and that assailants then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades from a grove of palm trees.
The attack was the first major loss inflicted on US troops in the area since the end of an offensive they launched in Falluja last month after four US contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated in the city.