Six American soldiers were killed in a house trapped with explosives in the volatile Diyala province on Wednesday during a new US-Iraqi offensive against al-Qaida extremists, the U.S. military said.

Another four were injured in the explosion, the military said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the military also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded on Tuesday in an attack in Salahuddin province, another target area of the new offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The latest deaths bring the total number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to 3,921, according to media reports based on Pentagon figures.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2008)