BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. soldiers were killed by explosions while on patrols yesterday — one in Baghdad and another in Beiji, 155 miles north of the capital, the military said.

Fifteen U.S. service members have been killed this week — and at least 1,935 have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003.

In other violence yesterday, a roadside bomb hit a patrol of Danish troops on a bridge in the southern city of Basra, killing one Dane — the first Danish fatality from hostile fire in Iraq — and wounding at least two others.

The U.S. military released about 500 Iraqi detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison yesterday, part of a release of 1,000 this week in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.