BAGHDAD (AFP) - An American soldier has been killed in southern Iraq, the US military said in a statement on Thursday. A soldier assigned to United States Forces-Iraq was killed on December 8 (Wednesday) while conducting operations in southern Iraq, the statement said, adding that the name of the soldier would be released after next of kin had been notified. It gave no further details on where or how the soldier was killed. The latest death brings to 4,430 the number of American soldiers to have died in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, according to an AFP tally based on data from independent website www.icasualties.org.