The U.S. military said Thursday that four troops died when a bomb went off near their patrol during combat operations in Baghdad's eastern section. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed in the Wednesday explosion.
With the new fatalities, the number of American service members killed since the onset of the Iraq war is 3,618, according to a CNN count.
Also Thursday, an Iraqi interior ministry official said Iraqi police found 15 bodies throughout Baghdad a day earlier. This brings the total of unidentified bodies found in the capital during July to 377.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the U.S. military announced the capture of a senior leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, who, the military said, is casting himself as a "conduit" between the top leaders of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in Iraq. Khalid al-Mashadani, an Iraqi also known as Abu Shahed, was captured on July 4 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the American military said.
In another development, two U.S. soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi near the northern city of Kirkuk last month, the U.S. military said Thursday. The charges were brought against the two following "reports of the alleged wrongdoing made by fellow soldiers to military authorities," the military's statement said.
The announcement came hours after a Marine corporal was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit offenses including murder in connection with the death of an Iraqi man in Hamdaniya last year.
