Five American soldiers were killed and 13 others wounded in roadside bomb explosions across Iraq on Monday, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
A soldier was killed and another wounded when an explosively- formed penetrator, or EFP, detonated near his vehicle during combat operations in western the capital, a military statement said.
EFP is a shaped charge explosive designed to penetrate armor effectively. They were first developed during the World War II.
Previously, U.S. officials accused Iran of providing and training militants in Iraq with these deadly armored-piercing roadside bombs, but Iran denied the accusations.
In an earlier statement, the military announced the killing of four of its soldiers and the wounding of 12 more in a single roadside bomb attack on Monday in Iraq's restive province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad.
The soldiers died of wounds sustained from the attack during combat operations in the province, the statement said.
Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops are carrying out a month- long major offensive targeting Shiite militia and al-Qaida Sunni fighters in the Diyala insurgents' strongholds.
The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq to more than 3,675 since the Iraq war broke out in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.
Source: Xinhua
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