BAGHDAD, Nov 6: Six American troops have been killed in bomb attacks in Iraq, the US military said on Tuesday, making 2007 the deadliest year for the American forces since the invasion.According to a tally based on Pentagon figures, 851 US soldiers have died so far this year in Iraq, against 846 in 2004, the previous most lethal year for the American military since the US-led invasion of March 2003.

“We lost five soldiers yesterday (Monday) in two unfortunate incidents.

Both involving IEDs (improvised explosive devices). There is still much danger out there,” Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told reporters in Baghdad.

Another military statement announced the death of a sailor from wounds sustained in a explosion in the Salaheddin province on Monday. The US military’s overall losses in Iraq since the invasion four years ago have now reached 3,856, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures.

The military also announced that Iraqi forces have uncovered a mass grave con-

taining 22 bodies near a vast lake northwest of Baghdad.

The grave was discovered on Saturday near Thar Thar lake, which spans the central-west provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin, during an operation by US and Iraqi forces targeting Al Qaeda hideouts, it said.

Despite the latest bout of killings, US and Iraqi officials say violence levels have fallen significantly across Iraq since a US troop “surge” ordered by US President George Bush in February.

With an extra 28,500 US troops on the ground, they say, the number of bombings and shootings has dropped to levels not seen since before February 2006, when a wave of sectarian violence was unleashed by the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra.

Rear Admiral Smith told the Baghdad news conference that because of the surge as well as an increasing trend by Iraqis to tip off the security forces, the number of arms caches being uncovered in Iraq had increased significantly.—AFP