Seven US soldiers reported killed in Iraq attacks

BAGHDAD, June 3 (Reuters) Seven US soldiers were killed in six separate attacks across Iraq the US military said today, days after it recorded its deadliest monthly toll in more than two years.

All but one of the soldiers were killed by roadside bombs, by far the biggest killers of US troops in Iraq yesterday.

In the worst attack, two soldiers were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in Nineveh province, northwest of Baghdad.

Two others died in separate bomb attacks in volatile Diyala province to the northeast of the capital, where 3,000 extra US troops have been sent to combat a rise in violence.

Two were killed in Baghdad, one by a roadside bomb and the other by small arms fire, and a seventh soldier was killed by a suicide bomber while on patrol southwest of Baghdad.

A total of 127 US soldiers were killed in May, the third-highest monthly total behind November 2004, when 137 were killed, and April the same year when another 135 died. Nine have died in the first two days of June.

A total of 3,487 soldiers have died since the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein began in March 2003.

The US military said it expected to suffer more casualties when it began pouring thousands of extra troops into Baghdad and other areas as part of a security crackdown aimed at dragging Iraq back from the brink of civil war.

The crackdown is meant to buy time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to reach a series of political benchmarks set by Washington aimed at promoting national reconciliation between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

REUTERS LPB PM1833