BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. soldiers and a Marine were killed in Iraq, the U.S. military said today, bringing the number of Americans who have died in the country so far this month to 23.

The two American soldiers, assigned to the 89th Military Police Brigade, died when the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by a roadside bomb Thursday in western Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Another soldier was wounded, it added.

The Marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Thursday from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province. At least 11 of the 23 American deaths in November were in Anbar province. Most of the others died in the Baghdad area.

At least 105 U.S. forces died in October, the fourth highest monthly toll of the war.

Since the beginning of the war in 2003, 2,843 members of the U.S. military have died, according to an Associated Press count.

In other news, Iraqi security forces said they arrested the head of an al-Qaida cell in a western Iraqi city.

Acting on a tip, Iraqi soldiers descended on a building in the city of Rawah, 175 miles northwest of Baghdad, where they arrested local al-Qaida commander Abu Muhayyam al-Masri, whose name is a pseudonym meaning, "the Egyptian," a Defense Ministry official said.

Two aides, Abu Issam al-Libi, or "the Libyan," and Abu Zaid al-Suri, "the Syrian," were also arrested, along with nine other members of the cell, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The pseudonyms appeared to mark the men as foreign fighters, thousands of whom are said by Iraq's government to have crossed the porous border with Syria about 55 miles west of Rawah to join the insurgency. There was no official confirmation of their nationality.

The official said al-Suri confessed to organizing at least one suicide bombing in Baghdad. He said the raid also netted a large quantity of weapons.

Rawah lies deep in Anbar province, where Sunni Arab insurgents routinely launch deadly attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces that show no sign of diminishing in numbers or intensity, more than three years after the U.S. invasion.

The arrests came a day after Iraqi Health Minister Ali al-Shemari estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war — about three times previously accepted estimates of 45,000-50,000 killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict.

In comments to the AP during a visit to Austria, al-Shemari said he based his figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals — although such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.

"It is an estimate," al-Shemari said.

Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the 150,000 figure included civilians and police, as well as those who were abducted, killed and whose bodies were brought to morgues run by the Health Ministry. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.

No official account for Iraq deaths in the post-invasion conflict has ever been available.