BAGHDAD, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb on a route clearance mission near Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

    The three soldiers were conducting a route clearance patrol northwest of Baghdad when they were struck by a roadside bomb, the statement said, adding that another soldier was wounded.

    The names of the dead are being withheld pending notification of next of kin, it said.

    The latest deaths brought to 3,188 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.