US soldier dies in non-combat incident in Iraq
7/11/2008 17:04
A US soldier has died of a non- battle related cause in Iraq's northern
oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the US military said today.
The incident occurred
yesterday, the military said in a statement without providing further details
about the incident.
But the statement said it is under investigation, adding
that the name of the deceased soldier is being withheld pending notification of
next of kin.
About 4,191 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the U.
S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon
figures.
Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, has been the hot bed of
insurgency, sectarian and ethnic violence since the US-led invasion in
2003.
Recently, tensions run high in the ethnically mixed city, as Turkoman
and Arab minorities oppose Kurdish claims to annex the Kirkuk region to their
autonomous enclave in northern Iraq.
Xinhua
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