Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack outside a military base in north of Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said.

    "Insurgents initiated the attack on the outpost with a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonation," the U.S.statement said.

    "The attack site has been secured and wounded soldiers have been evacuated," the statement added.

    Witnesses from Tarmiyah area, 30 km north of Baghdad where a U.S. and Iraqi military base located, said that insurgents clashed with U.S. troops after a suicide bomber apparently tried to breakthrough barriers around the base.

    Earlier, the U.S. military said that a marine was killed in combat operations on Saturday in the volatile Anbar province.

    About 3,140 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led war on Iraq broke out in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.