Baghdad (ANTARA News/AFP) - A member of the US military has been killed in an attack in Iraq, the second to be killed since Washington announced its forces would depart by year`s end, the US military said on Tuesday.

"A US service member was killed Monday while conducting operations in central Iraq," the military said in an emailed statement.

"It was a hostile incident," a spokesman for United States Forces - Iraq told AFP by email, without providing further details.

Another American service member was killed on November 3 in an attack in Kirkuk in north Iraq.

President Barack Obama announced on October 21 that US forces would leave by the end of this year, bringing to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Monday`s death brings to 4,484 the number of US soldiers who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on data compiled by icasualties.org. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011