BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb killed two American soldiers patrolling eastern Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said, announcing the first combat deaths in the capital in a week.
With security vastly improved in Baghdad since the U.S. troop buildup last year, the number of American soldiers killed on the streets of the Iraqi capital has declined sharply.
The casualties were the first suffered by the American military in the capital since Aug. 28 when a soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. Another soldier died Tuesday in Baghdad of non-hostile causes, the military said.
The latest deaths brought to at least 4,153 the number of U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Also Thursday, the U.S. military arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members Thursday during a raid on their home in Baghdad, an official with Baghdad TV said.
The arrest comes two days after American and Iraqi forces detained a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency south of Baghdad.
The cameraman, Omar Husham, 28, was arrested at his house in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the television official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. His father and two brothers were also detained, the official said.
The U.S. military said it detained a journalist because he was ‘‘assessed to be threat to security’’ but would not release the name.
‘‘He was seized along with others suspected of a terrorist bombing network,’’ said military spokesman Maj. John Hall. The military declined to release further details.
The TV official said Husham had been working for Baghdad TV for two years and covered political events. The station is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, the major Sunni political group and a member of the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
‘‘Husham is a respected cameraman who has traveled abroad with government officials,’’ the official told The Associated Press. ‘‘We demand that concerned officials intervene and for the Americans to release him immediately.’’
Azamiyah had been a center for Sunni insurgent operations until the U.S. military walled off the center of the district and organized a group of local Sunni fighters who had turned against the insurgents.
Even with the neighborhood’s concrete walls, a suicide bomber last month killed Farooq al-Obeidi, the deputy head of the U.S.-allied Sunni fighters in Azamiyah. Nine other people were killed.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, the U.S. military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations, including the AP. None has been convicted in an Iraqi court.
With security vastly improved in Baghdad since the U.S. troop buildup last year, the number of American soldiers killed on the streets of the Iraqi capital has declined sharply.
The casualties were the first suffered by the American military in the capital since Aug. 28 when a soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. Another soldier died Tuesday in Baghdad of non-hostile causes, the military said.
The latest deaths brought to at least 4,153 the number of U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Also Thursday, the U.S. military arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members Thursday during a raid on their home in Baghdad, an official with Baghdad TV said.
The arrest comes two days after American and Iraqi forces detained a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency south of Baghdad.
The cameraman, Omar Husham, 28, was arrested at his house in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said the television official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. His father and two brothers were also detained, the official said.
The U.S. military said it detained a journalist because he was ‘‘assessed to be threat to security’’ but would not release the name.
‘‘He was seized along with others suspected of a terrorist bombing network,’’ said military spokesman Maj. John Hall. The military declined to release further details.
The TV official said Husham had been working for Baghdad TV for two years and covered political events. The station is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, the major Sunni political group and a member of the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
‘‘Husham is a respected cameraman who has traveled abroad with government officials,’’ the official told The Associated Press. ‘‘We demand that concerned officials intervene and for the Americans to release him immediately.’’
Azamiyah had been a center for Sunni insurgent operations until the U.S. military walled off the center of the district and organized a group of local Sunni fighters who had turned against the insurgents.
Even with the neighborhood’s concrete walls, a suicide bomber last month killed Farooq al-Obeidi, the deputy head of the U.S.-allied Sunni fighters in Azamiyah. Nine other people were killed.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, the U.S. military has detained a number of Iraqi journalists working for international news organizations, including the AP. None has been convicted in an Iraqi court.