Three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on Saturday, pushing the U.S. death toll closer to the 4,000 mark in a bloody start to the sixth year of the war for U.S. troops.
The three deaths, which brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 3,996, came just days after U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States was on track to victory in Iraq.
In a speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, Bush acknowledged the "high cost in lives and treasure" but said a U.S. troop build-up in Iraq had reduced violence there and opened the door to a major victory in the war on terror.
The war is a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton calling for an early troop withdrawal timetable.
Presumptive Republican candidate John McCain rejects this move.
The U.S. military said the three soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up their vehicle northwest of Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians also died in the attack. It gave no further details about where the incident occurred.
Allies killed by mistake?
Also Saturday, Iraqi authorities reported that a U.S. airstrike north of the capital killed six members of a U.S.-backed Sunni group — straining relations with America's new allies in the fight against al-Qaida.
The U.S. military has credited the deployment of 30,000 extra U.S. troops and a rebellion by Sunni tribal leaders against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda for a 60 percent drop in violence across Iraq.
Tribal leaders have formed a mostly Sunni movement of some 90,000 men known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizen groups. The U.S. military pays them $300 a month to patrol their neighborhoods and man checkpoints.
The six CLC members were killed Saturday during a U.S. helicopter strike in Salahuddin province, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police and a local tribal leader said.
The U.S. military said it was checking into the report.
