U.S. soldier killed in Iraq

An American soldier was killed in action south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Monday.

A Multi-National Division South (MND-S) soldier was killed on Sunday, a military statement said without providing further details.

MND-S is also known as the Red Bull Division. Its responsibility is to assist Iraqi security forces with security and stability missions in the area south of Baghdad, ranging from Najaf to Wasit provinces and extending to Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad.

However, an anonymous Iraqi police source in Kut, the capital city of Wasit province, told Xinhua on Monday that they have a report saying that an unknown sniper shot a U.S. soldier during a U.S. military patrol in the afternoon on Sunday in the town of Nu'maniyah, some 40 km east of Kut.

The source could not confirm whether the soldier is the same person in the U.S. military statement.

Following the attack, U.S. troops teamed up with Iraqi security forces to search a nearby area looking for the attackers, the source said.

The latest death brings the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq to about 4,365, since the breakout of the U.S.-led war on Iraq in 2003, according to media account based on Pentagon figures.

Source: Xinhua