IRAQ: Two American soldiers have been killed and their battle tank destroyed in a roadside ambush, lifting the death toll of US troops since the end of war above the wartime total.
The soldiers, from the 4th Infantry Division, were killed when their M1 Abrams battle tank hit a roadside bomb while on patrol near the town of Balad, 45 miles to the north of Baghdad.
A third soldier was injured in the attack, which took place in the heart of the "Sunni triangle", the location for repeated attacks against American troops.
It was the first M1 Abrams tank - the mainstay of the US army's armoured forces - to be destroyed since the end of the war.
The latest fatalities bring the number of American soldiers killed since the end of major combat operations was announced on May 1st to 115, exceeding the 114 deaths during the conflict.
The attack follows a dramatic escalation in violence since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with 43 people having been killed on Monday in a string of suicide bomb attacks targeting the International Committee of the Red Cross and police stations across Baghdad.
The ICRC said yesterday that it would reduce its foreign staff in Iraq but not fully withdraw from the country following the attack on its Baghdad headquarters, which killed 12 people, including two of its own staff.
"We are reducing the number of our international staff and increasing the measures for the security of the remainder," said an ICRC spokesman in Baghdad.
Elsewhere yesterday, seven Ukrainian soldiers serving under Polish command were wounded south of Baghdad when their vehicles hit a number of land mines and they came under fire.
Iraq's interim Governing Council yesterday urged its neighbours to tighten control of their borders to stop suspected militants entering Iraq. The council said that Mr Hoshyar Zubari, the Iraqi foreign minister, would raise the issue at a conference of foreign ministers of neighbouring countries in Damascus next week. A man held after allegedly trying to blow up a police station on Monday, who was initially thought to be a Syrian - he allegedly had a Syrian passport - is now believed to be a Yemeni.
Meanwhile, Syria yesterday condemned Monday's bombing of the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad, describing the attack as a "terrorist act", although it noticeably did not use the same language about the bombing of the police stations.