Two U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

"Two soldiers from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, the 4th Infantry Division, were killed on May 15 near Balad, some 80 km north of Baghdad, when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device," the military said in a statement.

In an earlier statement, the military said that a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast while he was on foot patrol in southern Baghdad early on Tuesday.

The names of the killed are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the statements said.

The latest deaths have brought the death toll of U.S. military personnel to at least 2,444 since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

Source: Xinhua