MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two more Americans have died in Iraq under hostile fire. The two were killed, nine others wounded in an attack west of Baghdad. On Monday, one American died in an ambush and another was killed in a mine explosion. CNN's Matthew Chance reports on the sudden surge of attacks in and around Baghdad.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well there has been a sharp increase in attacks on U.S. forces over the course of the last several days. We'll start in Fallujah though, a town about 70 kilometers to the west of Baghdad where U.S. military officials say a force -- a hostile force of unknown size attacked a U.S. Army patrol in the early hours of Tuesday morning -- attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. In the firefight, of course, two U.S. soldiers were killed, according to U.S. officials. Several others were injured. U.S. officials also say they killed two of the attackers and are holding six others in custody. It's also been confirmed that a U.S. Army Medivac helicopter was severely damaged during that incident, not by hostile fire, though. Instead, by being struck, in the words of the U.S. press statement -- struck by one of their own U.S. armored fighting vehicles, a Bradley fighting vehicle, as it was maneuvering into a new firing position, according to the U.S. So a picture of some confusion emerging from that scene. Fallujah has been a hot spot, a flashpoint for violence, anti-U.S. violence in the past. And clearly, in Fallujah and elsewhere in the country, the situation is far from safe for those troops patrolling the territory. Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad, Iraq.
Two Americans Killed in Hostile Fire in Iraq