Two US soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division were killed today north of the Iraqi capital, the military said in a statement.
One of the soldiers died in a vehicle accident.
At about 8:30 a.m., a patrol near Balad met an Iraqi truck being driven erratically, the statement said. The driver of one of the patrol vehicles swerved to avoid a collision, but the vehicle overturned, injuring two soldiers.
The soldiers were evacuated to a local military medical facility where one later died of his injuries, the statement said.
The second incident happened at about 10 a.m., also near Balad, when a patrol returning from the scene of the accident was attacked with small arms fire, the military said. The patrol returned fire, and one member was killed.
The names of the soldiers killed were withheld pending notification of their families.
More than 1,040 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.