U.S. Soldier Killed in Baghdad Airport Mortar Attack
Thu February 5, 2004 11:00 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack on U.S. military installations near Baghdad airport on Thursday, a U.S. Army spokesman said.

He said approximately four mortar rounds struck a logistics base near the airport and the airport complex itself, which lies a few kilometers (miles) west of Baghdad and is a key command center for U.S. military operations in Iraq.

The wounded soldier was evacuated for medical treatment, the spokesman said.

The death raises to 369 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in hostilities since the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein was launched in March last year.

Over the same period, unofficial estimates suggest more than 10,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, have been killed either in combat or in the months-long insurgency against U.S. occupiers.