Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three American soldiers were killed and another was injured in two separate attacks across the country, the U.S. military said on Friday.

    Two soldiers were killed and a third was wounded when insurgents attacked them by small-arms fire while conducting operations in the restive province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, on Thursday, the military said in a statement.

    The wounded soldier was transported to a hospital of the Coalition Forces for treatment, it added.

    A separate statement said that another soldier was killed by a roadside bomb explosion while his unit was conducting a foot patrol in an area in south of Baghdad on Wednesday.

    The names of the deceased soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the statements added.

    The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq to more than 3,905 since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to media reports based on Pentagon figures.