An army spokesman said a roadside bomb attack has killed two Iraqi troops and injured two others in northern city of Kirkuk. Col. Salam al-Zobaei, the spokesman of the Iraqi army in Kirkuk, conveyed the bomb struck an army patrol near the city on Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has announced the death of a soldier in an non-combat incident in northern Iraq, bringing the toll for the month of July to 12, the lowest since the US invasion of 2003. "A US soldier died in a non-combat related incident while conducting operations in Nineveh province July 31," according to military statement late on Thursday.
Two other soldiers were wounded, it added, without providing further details.
As violence is down and tours of duty have been reduced from 15 months to a year for U.S. Army units heading to Iraq, American president George Bush acknowledged Thursday "The progress is still reversible." However, he added "There now appears to be a degree of durability in gains."
And, he said, it was reasonable to expect further cuts in U.S. combat forces "as conditions permit."
