Two US marines were killed in an indirect fire attack in the flash-point town of Saqlawiyah west of Baghdad, the US military said on Saturday.

"Two Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed in an indirect fire attack in Saqlawiyah on Oct. 27," the military said in a statement.

One of them died at the scene and the other died of his wounds later at a nearby medical center, the statement said.

The US military usually use the expression "indirect fire attack" to refer to mortar attack.

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the statement added.

Some 2,009 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the US- led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Source: Xinhua