Two U.S. troops die in Iraq

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, taking the American troop death toll in Iraq for April to 46.

That makes April the deadliest month since September, when 65 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq, according to figures compiled by icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks military deaths.

In a statement, the U.S. military said gunmen killed one soldier in north-western Baghdad on Tuesday. The second soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack on his vehicle, also in the north-western part of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.

Around half the U.S. troop deaths in Iraq this month have been in Baghdad, including several killed by rocket and mortar fire from the eastern Baghdad stronghold of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting battles against Shi'ite gunmen in and around the Sadr City bastion for weeks.

American forces said they killed 34 militiamen in Sadr City on Tuesday in a series of clashes including one street battle that raged for four hours.

While April was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since September, the casualty toll is well down on the same month a year ago, when 104 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

That was when U.S. forces were building up in Baghdad and pushing deeper into parts of the capital controlled by Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants.

Al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and regrouped in provinces north of the city.