April deadly for US military in Iraq as toll crosses 100

Four US soldiers were killed in Iraq over the weekend, the military said on Monday, raising the number of American troops killed this month to over 100 and making April one of the deadliest of the war for US forces.

Four US soldiers were killed in Iraq over the weekend, the military said on Monday, raising the number of American troops killed this month to over 100 and making April one of the deadliest of the war for US forces.

The toll could increase the pressure on US President George W Bush, who is fighting a plan by Democrats to set a timetable for withdrawing US forces from Iraq.

Bush has vowed to veto a war spending bill from Democrats that requires combat troops to begin withdrawing by October 1. The Democratic-controlled Congress plans to send the bill to Bush on Tuesday.

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The US military said three soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad on Sunday. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed. Another soldier was killed by small arms fire in eastern Baghdad on Saturday.

US and Iraqi forces launched a major security crackdown in Baghdad in mid-February that is seen as a final attempt to halt Iraq’s plunge into all-out civil war between majority Shi’ites and once-dominant minority Sunni Arabs.

US commanders acknowledge that the offensive, which has led to the deployment of thousands of extra troops on the streets, has increased the risk of military casualties.

Before the announcement of the latest deaths, the independent icasualties.org portal had put the number of US troops killed in Iraq in April at 99. Around half have been killed in and around Baghdad.

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In fresh violence, eight gunmen were killed in a US-Iraqi operation in Baghdad on Sunday, the US military said, in what some witnesses described as a clash with the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.