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U.S. soldier dies in Iraq

Arab World Materials 6 April 2011 12:35 (UTC +04:00)

An American soldier died in a non- combat incident in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

The soldier died on Tuesday due to what a U.S. military statement called non-hostile incident, referring to that the soldier was not killed during combat operations.

The brief military statement did not give further details about how and where exactly the incident occurred.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the statement said.

The latest death is the fifth of the U.S. soldiers in Iraq over the past four days, two of the five were killed by insurgents' indirect fire (rocket or mortar fire) and the other three died in non-combat incidents.

The death toll of U.S. soldiers, who have been killed in Iraq since the war broke out in 2003, rose to about 4,446, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.

In mid 2010, U.S. troops in Iraq were reduced to below 50,000 soldiers. Washington said that the remaining U.S. troops in Iraq are conducting support and training missions.

U.S. military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011 according to the security pact named Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, signed late in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.

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