U.S. deaths top 1,900 in Iraq as 10 are killed

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The war in Iraq passed a sobering milepost Tuesday when U.S. officials reported 10 more Americans were killed — six of them members of the armed forces, raising to more than 1,900 the number of U.S. service members who have died in the country since the invasion.

A Diplomatic Security agent attached to the U.S. State Department and three private American security guards were killed when their convoy was hit by a suicide car bomber Monday in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said. The four were attached to the U.S. Embassy's regional office in Mosul.

The announcements came as British and Iraqi officials issued stinging charges and countercharges about the storming of a Basra jail to free two British soldiers who had been arrested by Basra police. During the raid, British forces learned that Shiite Muslim militiamen and police had just moved the two men to a nearby house. The British then stormed that house and rescued the men.

British Defense Minister John Reid said his forces in the southern city were "absolutely right" to act. But a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said the operation was "very unfortunate."

Britain's Foreign Office later released a statement it said was from al-Jaafari's office, insisting there is no crisis in relations between the two countries.

"In response to recent events in Basra, the Iraqi government wants to clarify that there is no 'crisis' — as some media have claimed — between it and the British government," said the statement from al-Jaafari's office, according to the Foreign Office. "Both governments are in close contact, and an inquiry will be conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior into the incident."

The latest American deaths, which raised the overall toll to 1,905, included a soldier from the 18th Military Police Brigade killed in a roadside bombing 75 miles north of the capital Tuesday, the military said.

Four soldiers attached to the Marines died Monday in two roadside bombings near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. They were attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

The military also said that Sgt. Matthew L. Deckard, 29, of Elizabethtown, Ky., was killed Friday when a bomb went off near his tank during patrol operations.

Before the six military deaths were announced Tuesday, a Pentagon count said 1,479 U.S. service members had died in hostile action in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. The toll includes five military civilians and excludes American service members who died from other causes.