Baghdad: A suicide bomber killed five American soldiers on a foot patrol today after detonating his explosives vest in a shopping district in central Baghdad, the US military said.

It was the deadliest attack on American forces in Iraq since a Jan 28 roadside bombing and ambush killed five soldiers in Mosul in northern Iraq.

Military spokesman Maj Mark Cheadle said that "it was reported to us as a suicide bomber."

Four of the soldiers died at the scene in the mostly Sunni district of Mansour and the fifth died later from wounds, the military said in a statement. The blast also injured three US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter, the military said.

An Iraqi police officer at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two civilians were also killed and another eight wounded in the attack in central Baghdad.

The policeman said that about 15 soldiers had dismounted from their Humvees and were talking to shopkeepers when they were attacked.

The military did not provide more details. The names of the soldiers were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Today s deaths brought to 3,979 the number of members of the US military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003,according to an Associated Press count.

Source : PTI