Eleven American soldiers were killed in a series of attacks across IRAQ on Thursday, making it the deadliest day for U.S. occupation forces in the war-torn country since the 2003 U.S.-led INVASION, the U.S. army said, according to BBC.
IRAQ has been hit by a wave of violence in the past two days. On Thursday alone, more than 130 Iraqis were killed in bloody attacks throughout the country.
Five U.S. troops were killed when a roadside bomb hit their patrol south of the southern city of Karbala, which was stuck by a deadly blast on Thursday when a human bomber blew himself up near a Shia shrine, killing more than 60 Iraqis.
Another roadside bomb struck a U.S. army vehicle north of the Iraqi capital, killing two soldiers.
Elsewhere, Iraqi fighters killed two U.S. Marines during combat operations in the central Iraqi town of Falluja.
A bomb attack on a police recruitment centre in Ramadi killed one Marine and one soldier. The blast also claimed the lives of at least 60 Iraqis, including civilians and police applicants.
The latest fatalities brought the number of American soldiers killed in IRAQ to 2,192, according to figures from the Pentagon.
The deaths came one day after the U.S. President GEORGE W. BUSH claimed that the U.S.’s plan in IRAQ was succeeding.
Bush also said that the U.S. would hand over control of more Iraqi territory to Iraqi authorities during 2006 if Iraqi security forces achieved progress.
But, as usual, the American President refused to outline a timetable for withdrawal, insisting that conditions in Iraq, not pressure from war opponents, would lead to such decisions.
Bombings, explosions and shootings intensified in IRAQ after a brief lull in violence at the time of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, more than 58 Iraqis died in several attacks, including 36 killed in a bomb blast that targeted a Shia funeral in the northern town of Miqdadiya.
The violence came as IRAQ's Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties continue their efforts to form a unity government.