Two U.S. Marines have been killed by a suicide car bomber in western Iraq, the military said in a statement Saturday. The attack happened in the volatile Anbar provincial team of Haqlaniyah, 220 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad, on Friday during combat operations. The Marines were assigned to the Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the statement said. Their names were withheld pending next-of-kin notification. As of Saturday, at least 2,224 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
