Three U.S. soldiers killed in Baghdad blast

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday night in northwestern Baghdad when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device, the military said in a statement Wednesday.

The names of the troops were not released pending the notification of relatives.

At least 3,966 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 17, a source in the town's hospital told Reuters.

The source said the attack had occurred in a market in the town 55 miles northeast of the capital, and so far the hospital had received seven bodies.

While attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, U.S. commanders say al-Qaida in Iraq, who they blame for most large-scale bombings, remains a dangerous foe, particularly in provinces north

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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