Baghdad ? Fourteen American soldiers were killed in three deadly days in Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday, including four in a single roadside bombing and one who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol southwest of the capital.

The blast that killed the four soldiers occurred Sunday as the troops were conducting a cordon and search operation northwest of the Iraqi capital, according to a statement. Two other soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad were killed and five were wounded along with an Iraqi interpreter in two separate roadside bombings on Sunday, the military said.

One soldier was killed Friday after the patrol approached two suspicious men for questioning near a mosque, and one of the suspects blew himself up, according to a statement. The military did not provide more details.

Seven other troops were killed in a series of attacks across Iraq on Saturday.

The deaths raised to at least 3,493 members of the U.S. military who have died since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The latest round of bloodshed came as private talks were reported between the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia and Iraqi government officials to win the release of five Britons kidnapped last Tuesday from Baghdad’s Finance Ministry, an abduction believed carried out by the Shiite militia.

Recent American and Iraqi military operations in east Baghdad are believed aimed at finding and freeing those hostages.

London’s Sunday Times, quoting an unidentified senior Iraqi government official, said al-Sadr’s representatives were demanding an end to assassination attempts against militia leaders, an end to British army patrols in the southern Shiite city of Basra, and the release of nine Mahdi officials from British and U.S. custody.

Al-Sadr’s office denies involvement in the kidnappings – of four security guards and a computer consultant. But the Times reported an al-Sadr official visited Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to tell him the men were “safe and sound” but would not be free until the demands were met. Al-Maliki’s office on Sunday denied a meeting took place.

In the southern city of Diwaniyah, as U.S. jets roared overhead, Mahdi Army militiamen battled with Iraqi troops and local police searching for two militia leaders. At least three people were killed and 24 wounded, official Iraqi sources reported.

Maj. Gen. Othman Ali, commander of the Iraq army’s 8th Division, said his forces captured one of the men, but he escaped when fellow militiamen came to his aid.