Nine More U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Nine more American troops died in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Monday, five of them in a vehicle accident in a remote, rain-soaked western area. Their deaths brought the number of service members killed so far this month to 13 — nearly half the number who died in all of March.

Three more Americans — two Marines and a sailor — were missing in the Sunday accident in which a truck overturned near Asad air base, a U.S. statement said. All the dead were Marines, the statement added.

It gave no reason for the accident except that it was not a result of hostile fire. Heavy rains fell over the area during the weekend.

Also Sunday, three Marines and a sailor were killed by "hostile fire" in Anbar province, which includes the Asad base, the military said. No further details, including the precise location, were released.

It was the first time that four American troops had been killed in a single attack since Feb. 22, when four soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division died in a bombing in northern Iraq.

Thirty-one U.S. troops died in Iraq in March, the lowest monthly death toll for U.S. forces since February 2004. But the relatively good news quickly became worse on the first day of April, when four troops were killed including two pilots who died when their Apache helicopter crashed.

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