Baghdad, Iraq ? Bombs killed the country’s oldest legislator and two American soldiers Tuesday on the first anniversary of Iraq’s sovereignty – a day the president described as “blessed” despite the persistent violence.

More than a dozen Iraqis also were killed, and U.S. and Iraqi troops launched Operation Sword aimed at communities along the Euphrates River, their third major anti-insurgency campaign in Anbar province.

The campaigns have failed to stem a Sunni-dominated insurgency that has killed more than 1,360 people – mostly civilians and Iraqi forces – since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-dominated government April 28.

National Assembly legislator Sheik Dhari Ali al-Fayadh, his son, and two bodyguards were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into theirs as they traveled to parliament from their farm in Rashidiya, 20 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Also Tuesday, a U.S. soldier died in a suicide car bomb blast in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, and another soldier was killed by a car bomb in Tikrit, the military said. At least 1,743 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Death toll climbs for troops in Iraq

As of Tuesday, at least 1,743 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,341 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians.

The AP count is five higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Tuesday.

The British military has reported 89 deaths; Italy, 25; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Spain, 11; Bulgaria, 13; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Thailand and the Netherlands, two each; and Denmark, El Salvador, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Latvia one death each.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,604 U.S. military members have died, according to AP’s count. That includes at least 1,232 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 13,190 U.S. servicemembers have been wounded, according to a Defense Department tally released Tuesday.