BAGHDAD, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Five U.S. soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

   "Five soldiers assigned to Baghdad Task Force were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near their patrol in Baghdad area on Jan. 5," the U.S. military said in a statement.

   The incident is being investigated, it said.

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

   The latest deaths bring the total death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq to about 2,186 since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Enditem