The US State Department said on Thursday that three Blackwater contractors working with the Bureau of Diplomatic Security were killed in bombing attacks in Mosul in northern Iraq on Sept. 19.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of these men. They were valued members of the State Department family and of our Diplomatic Security team in Baghdad," the State Department said in a statement.

The three private American security guards were killed when their convoy was hit by a suicide car bomb in Mosul.

Overall, more than 1,900 US service members have been killed in Iraq since the Iraq war in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2005)