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Tuesday 19 July 2011

American soldier killed in central Iraq

An American soldier has been killed in a non-combat incident in central Iraq, the US military has announced.


In a brief statement released on Monday, the US military said that the soldier was killed a day earlier, without giving details about how and where the incident took place.

It was the fifth US military fatality in Iraq this month, which brought to 4,473 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, according to icasualties.

There are currently about 50,000 US soldiers based in Iraq, who are due to leave the country by the end of this year in line with a 2008 agreement signed between US and Iraq.

However, many US officials have recently visited Iraq to pressure Iraqi leaders into agreeing with an extended US military presence in the country beyond the 2011 deadline.

Washington claims that US officially ended combat operations in Iraq last August and the current role of the US army is to advise and help Iraqi security forces.

But, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who visited Iraq last week, disclosed that American forces had resumed military operations in Iraq nearly one year after the US military announced an official end to combat operations in the country.

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