Latest upsurge of violence on the turbulent Iraqi arena has claimed some 25 lives. The American Army said in a statement, released on Tuesday, that two US soldiers died in a blast that ripped through a military patrol in Salah Eddine governorate north of Baghdad on Monday. Earlier, it was reported that a US soldier died in an identical incident in southern Baghdad. Iraqi police said 19 people died and 30 were wounded in an explosion of a booby-trapped car east of Baghdad. The explosives-laden vehicle blew up near a crowded bazar. Meanwhile, the American Army said in a statement that US troops on patrol aboard a helicopter gunship shot dead a gunman who was trying, along with two other armed men, to plant explosives southwest of the Iraqi capital. The aerial scouting American force shot dead the gunman but the two others fled the scene, but one of them was later arrested by US ground troops.