"Three Marines assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in action May 29, in the Al Anbar Province while conducting security and stability operations," the statement said.

The US military also reported in another statement that a soldier had been killed and nine wounded in a mortar attack on May 25 on a military base south of Baghdad.

The statement did not specify whether the soldier was killed on Tuesday or died later of his injuries.

More than 800 US soldiers have now died since the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March of last year, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures. Of those, 590 have been killed in action.

Meanwhile, a mother and daughter were killed when two mortars struck their home during an attack on a US military base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul early Sunday, police and witnesses said.

Two mortars struck a home near a US military camp south of Mosul at 1:30 am (2130 GMT), killing a mother and her seven-year-old daughter, said police officer Shabon Mohammed.

A total of six mortars were fired in the direction of the camp, called Gazlani camp by Iraqis, witnesses said.

ATTEMPT ON IRAQI EDITOR
The former editor-in-chief of an Iraqi newspaper funded by the US-led coalition said yesterday he had survived an assassination attempt which killed his bodyguard and driver.

Ismail Zayer headed the Al-Sabah newspaper which was funded by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority until he resigned in March to found the independent Al-Sabah Al-Jadid.

"On Saturday morning, a police car and three civilian vehicles parked in front of my house and a police officer told me he had a warrant to arrest me and confiscate my car, on charges it was used for criminal activities," he said.

TALIBAN FIGHT
Four members of the American special forces were killed in action in a southern Afghan province at the heart of a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency, the US military said yesterday.

The victims died Saturday in Zabul province, about 240 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, military spokeswoman Master Sgt. Cindy Beam said in an e-mailed statement. She gave no details of how they were killed, AP reports from Kabul.

"Four US service members assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan were killed in action today here in southern Afgha-nistan," Beam said in the statement datelined Zabul.

Beam didn't say which service the four were attached to Army, Navy or Air Force and said the names of the soldiers would not be released pending notification of their families.