BAGHDAD, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- A US soldier was killed on Thursday when his vehicle hit a land mine in western Iraq near the border with Syria, the US military said.

    The incident took place at 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) Thursday near Husaybah, 320 km west of Baghdad, and the dead soldier was from the3rd Armored Division, said the military.

    Earlier, the US military reported that another soldier was killed and two were wounded in an ambush south of Baghdad on Wednesday.

    The soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division came under attack when fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on their convoy near Mahmudiya, some 40 km south of Baghdad, at 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).

    In another development, Pentagon said 15 soldiers were killed and 27 others wounded when the US Chinook helicopter was shot down by guerillas near Fallujah on Sunday. The US authority earlier put the death toll at 16.

    A total of 140 US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared the major combat over on May 1. Enditem