BAGHDAD, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Three American soldiers were killed and a fourth was wounded Saturday when a roadside bomb went off near their vehicle north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

    The attack occurred when a military patrol was conducting a "route clearance mission in order to free the roads of any possible dangers so that a follow-on unit could move through the area without harm," the military said in a statement.

    The latest deaths bring the total death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq to about 2,945 since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to the Pentagon figures.