Two soldiers die in Iraq
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BAGHDAD -- Two U.S. service members were killed Friday while conducting operations in southern Iraq, the U.S. military announced here Saturday, bringing to 20 the number of Americans killed this year in support of operations in Iraq.
The U.S. military released no other details, pending notification of family members.
Arab-language media outlets reported in Baghdad on Saturday that mortar fire had struck a base in southern Iraq, but it was unclear whether the two incidents were related.
Seven U.S. service members died in Iraq in a three-week stretch ending Friday, making April by far the deadliest month this year for U.S. forces here.
All U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by Dec. 31, although on Friday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Iraqi leaders to decide "within weeks" whether they want American troops to stay beyond the year-end deadline for their withdrawal.
Also Saturday, the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returned to Iraq from Iran.
Mr. Sadr threatened two weeks ago to reconstitute his Mahdi Army militia if the Iraqi government allows U.S. troops to stay into next year. Until January, Mr. Sadr had spent most of the previous four years in self-imposed exile in Iran.
MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino rescuers who dug by hand to save people buried by a landslide were losing hope of finding 21 still missing in the disaster that killed at least three people in a remote gold mining village, officials said Saturday.
The shanties and tents where miners and some of their families slept were buried under about 100 feet of mud, soil, rocks and other debris after they were struck by the landslide before dawn Friday.
First Published April 24, 2011 12:00 am
