The U.S. military says a U.S. soldier has been killed by an improvised explosive device in Salah-ad Din Province.
In
a statement, the military says the soldier died of wounds sustained
when the device was detonated Sunday. The soldier's name has been
withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Saturday Iraqi
police reported nine people killed and about 30 others wounded in a
suicide attack on U.S.-allied Sunni militiamen south of Baghdad.
Officials
say the bomber struck as about 200 of the Sunni patrolmen lined up to
receive paychecks outside a military building in the town of Jbala.
The
Sunni militias, also known as Awakening Councils, include former
insurgents who have turned against al-Qaida and other groups. They
have been credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq over the past
year.
Recent attacks in Iraq have killed dozens of people.
Meanwhile,
Iraqi Defense Minister Abd al Qadir Mohammed Jassem says Iraq hopes to
buy more military equipment to strengthen its security forces and
reduce violence.
He says Iraq will need to make major arms
purchases before the end of the year 2011 to be able to control at
least 60 percent of its border.
The defense minister made his remarks while on a visit to Moscow with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
On
Friday, a suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, in
the single largest loss of American life in Iraq in more than a year.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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