April 14 (Bloomberg) -- A Marine and a soldier were killed in Iraq, bringing U.S. military deaths to nearly 40 this month, as the army claimed a victory with the killing of a senior al- Qaeda operative in the country.

A Marine assigned to the Regimental Combat Team 5 died on April 12 in Baghdad due to ``enemy action,'' a military statement e-mailed from the Iraqi capital late last night said. A Multi National Division - Baghdad soldier was killed by a roadside bomb southwest of the capital yesterday morning, the army said in a release e-mailed earlier.

Military deaths are rising as the insurgency in Iraq is intensifying and the number of soldiers and Marines killed halfway through April already exceeds casualties in March. The military claimed a success yesterday with the killing of what it said was a ``senior'' al-Qaeda operative, Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi.

Abu Umar, who was killed by U.S. forces in a March 27 raid near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, ``formed specific relations'' with al-Qaeda leaders including the terrorist group's top two commanders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Major General Rick Lynch told reporters in Baghdad yesterday.

``The al-Qaeda network gave him the title of al-Qaeda Ambassador and he established liaison between terrorist networks,'' he said.

Abu Umar was responsible for planning and conducting kidnappings, according to Lynch.

Killing Insurgents

More than 115 leaders of the al-Qaeda network, including Abu Umar, ``have been taken out over the past several months,'' Lynch said. ``Operations will continue to take down the most important enemy to the people of Iraq.''

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, al-Zawahiri, was shown yesterday in a videotape praising insurgents in Iraq, and singling out Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as a ``beloved brother,'' the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. The video, dated November 2005, appeared on the Internet yesterday, the BBC said.

Al-Zawahiri has appeared in two videos this year, calling on U.S. President George W. Bush to admit defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and mocking U.S. forces for failing to kill him in an air strike in Pakistan.

The military earlier this month announced the arrest of Mohammed Hilal Hammad Ubaydi. Ubaydi, also known as Abu Ayman, led the Secret Islamic Army in the north of Babil province, and was Chief of Staff of Intelligence in Saddam Hussein's regime.

Sectarian Violence

Those successes haven't stopped the rising sectarian violence that is taking a toll on civilians and threatening to push the country into civil war. Violence between majority Shiites and minority Sunnis increased after the Feb. 22 destruction of the Golden Mosque, a sacred Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra. That attack prompted reprisals against Sunnis, who benefited under deposed dictator Hussein.

At least 13 people died and eight were wounded yesterday in a car bombing in a Shiite-dominated part of Baghdad, Agence France-Presse reported, citing an unidentified Interior Ministry official.

As many as 38,280 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the U.S. invasion, Iraqbodycount.net, a research group based in the U.K., said on its Web site.

The daily rate of civilian deaths increased to 36 a day in the third year of the occupation from 20 in the first, Iraqbodycount.net said in a release on March 9.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said on March 19 the sectarian killing in the country amounts to a ``civil war.''

The fighting between Shiite and Sunni militias is also hampering the country's efforts to form a new government, more than four months after elections for a new parliament.

Military Deaths

U.S. military deaths, including Department of Defense civilian contractors, since the invasion in March 2003, amounted to 2,363 as of April 12, according to a Pentagon tally.

Of those, 1,995 were killed in action, with the rest of the deaths from accidents or medical reasons not related to fighting.

There were 36 U.S. military deaths between March 30 and April 12, compared with 31 between Feb. 27 and March 30, Department of Defense tallies show.

U.S. forces will be needed in Iraq for as long as a further five years to defeat an insurgency and reduce ethnic tensions threatening to tear the country apart, an Iraqi general told Agence France-Presse in Kirkuk on April 11.

``If they leave, I am sure there would be a disaster,'' Major General Anwar Hamad Amin told AFP, the agency reported today from the northern Iraq city. ``They need to stay another three to five years to ensure stability.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 13, 2006 23:16 EDT