The deaths brought to 2,172 the number of US military personnel killed in action, and the death toll since the March 2003 invasion to 2,721, according to Pentagon figures.
The US military suffered 75 fatalities last month, its highest number since 79 personnel were killed in April, according to the US Department of Defense.
Attacks on US and Iraqi forces have risen since the start of Operation Forward Together in August, when a force of 3,500 US soldiers was transferred to Baghdad to combat increasing lawlessness in the Iraqi capital.
Amid violence fears, verdict delayed in Hussein trial. A13
Sunni politicians, meanwhile, expressed worries over a new government plan to stop sectarian violence. The plan, announced Monday by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, won some praise in parliament yesterday, but Shi'ite and Sunni leaders delayed potentially contentious talks to work out its details.
The four-point plan calls for creating neighborhood Shi'ite-Sunni committees to monitor efforts against sectarian violence. The aim is to overcome the deep mistrust between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
Many Sunnis remain skeptical that Shi'ite leaders will allow security forces to crack down more strongly on Shi'ite militias blamed for killing Sunnis -- including some linked to parties in the government.
``I haven't seen any real desire in the other side. There are militias supported by the government," said Sunni lawmaker Khalaf al-Alayan.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said that under the plan, parties that have militias have agreed to take ``responsibility for what their groups or people under them are doing . . . committing themselves to ending the sectarian violence."
Still, ``there are forces that are not under their control," Khalilzad said in an interview with National Public Radio. ``But if they implement what they've agreed to, there should be a significant decrease in the level of violence in Baghdad."
Some 400 Sunnis marched yesterday at the site of one of the kidnappings -- a frozen meat factory in Baghdad's Amil district -- demanding the government put a stop to the violence. Some carried banners reading ``get police troops out of our area" -- reflecting the widespread suspicion that Shi'ite-led security forces have been infiltrated by militias.
