U.S. Marine killed in Iraqi explosion

A U.S. Marine was killed in the volatile western Iraq province of al-Anbar in a secondary explosion, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday.

The Marine, assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed on Thursday in an "indirect fire explosion" in Forward Operating Base Camp Ramadi, Iraq, the statement said without elaborating further. His identity was not released pending notification of his next of kin, the AP says.

The latest death raises to 1,899 the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,473 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.