Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Two American soldiers were killed in two attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

    A soldier assigned to Multi-National Division-Baghdad died of fatal wounds sustained from a small-arms fire attack on his combat patrol in the Iraqi capital at around midnight (2135 GMT), a U.S. military said.

    Another soldier assigned to the same unit was killed by "hostile fire" at about 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) in the eastern Baghdad, another statement said.

    The attacks came as fierce clashes between Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen and the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces spread in several Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, killing and wounding hundreds of Iraqis.

    The latest deaths bring the number of U.S. soldiers that have been killed in Iraq to about 4,003 since the Iraq war broke out in2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.