Two US soldiers killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Jan 1 (Reuters) Two US soldiers were killed in an explosion in Iraq's Diyala province northeast of Baghdad yesterday the US military said in a statement today.

Their deaths took to at least 112 the number of soldiers killed in December, the deadliest month for Americans in Iraq for more than two years and to at least 3,001 the number killed since the invasion in March 2003.

The death toll milestone was reported yesterday by the Web site www.icasualties.org, which said the death of Specialist Dustin Donica on December 28 and that of a soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Saturday brought the total to 3,000.

However, US military officials have not confirmed that. They have said they can not confirm that Donica was not the unnamed soldier who died in a bomb attack near the capital on Thursday.

REUTERS LL VC2346