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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 1st, 2006 - Death in
Iraq, Grief in U.S. |
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104 U.S. troops die in October, most from roadside bombs, skirmishes By Ellen Barry, David Zucchino and P.J. Huffstutter November 1, 2006, 11:52 AM EST Baghdad, Iraq - October was
a time of gritty skirmishes against hardened fighters religiously motivated
to risk their lives during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. October's death toll, the
highest for U.S. forces in nearly two years, came during a month without
conventional battles or catastrophic helicopter crashes. Rather, the 104 troops
killed across Iraq were victims of a steady drip of assaults, primarily by
Sunni Arab insurgents. The U.S. military announced the death of another
soldier today. The number of attacks on
U.S. forces spiked in October to unprecedented levels, U.S. military
officials said. "There has been a much
more considered effort to specifically target coalition and Iraqi security
forces," Maj. Gen. William F. Caldwell IV, the spokesman for U.S.-led
forces in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad as the bloody month wore on. "There has been a
steady increase in the number of attacks specifically against security
forces." It was a month in which U.S.
forces were shot by snipers, hit by rocket-propelled grenades or lured into
ambushes and sprayed with fire from the AK-47s found in many Iraqi homes. But improvised explosive
devices left along roadsides remained the weapon of choice for Iraq's
insurgency. Despite jamming devices, tactical adjustments and increased
armoring of military vehicles, at least 52 of the U.S. casualties resulted
from these bombs, detonated by remote control from a distance. At least 43 deaths took
place in Baghdad, indicating a shifting focus of the war away from the Sunni
Arab heartland toward Iraq's capital "due to our more deliberate
presence, more active involvement out there," Caldwell told reporters in
Baghdad last week. U.S. forces were more
exposed than usual in Baghdad in an offensive aimed at taking back the
streets from the forces of sectarian warfare - Sunni Arab insurgents and
Shiite militiamen, some allied with officials of the Shiite-dominated
government. Though U.S. officials say
the Shiite militias dominating Iraq's south pose the biggest long-term threat
to stability, the vast majority of the Americans were killed in
Sunni-dominated areas. The deaths in Baghdad took
place largely in Sunni-dominated neighborhoods on the west side of the
capital city. An additional 37 U.S. troops died west of Baghdad, in the
largely Sunni Anbar province. Sunni insurgents in the Euphrates River towns
and cities of Iraq's desert hinterlands deem the U.S. an occupation force and
the Baghdad government, now run by the nation's long-subjugated Shiite
majority, little more than an American puppet. The Marine Corps, unlike the
Army, does not release information about the precise location or cause of
casualties. Marine brass believe such information could help the enemy. The
Marines, in public announcements, describe at least 18 of the October deaths
simply as "hostile" incidents in Anbar province. But most officials acknowledge
that many of the Marine casualties in October occurred in Ramadi, the rundown
provincial capital where insurgents have intimidated most Iraqi government
workers into fleeing. Marines face daily threats from roadside bombs, snipers
and even assaults on their fortified bases. "It's combat nearly
every day," said one Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Ramadi is where the terrorists want to establish their capital. They're
armed and they're relentless." An additional 17 Americans
were killed in Sunni Arab areas north of Baghdad, in and around the
provincial capitals of Tikrit, Baqouba, Mosul and Kirkuk, where Kurds and
Sunni Arabs now fight for dominance. October's death toll was the
highest since the month preceding Iraq's Jan. 31, 2005, elections. Typical of the fatalities
was Staff Sgt. Kevin M. Witte, 27, of Beardsley, a farming town in western
Minnesota, along the South Dakota line. He died Oct. 20 in Baghdad
when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during a
combat patrol. Such roadside bomb
explosions in densely populated urban areas shatter windows and cause panic
among Iraqi pedestrians, drivers and residents. Wild gunfire erupts. Alarmed
and confused, their eardrums shattered, U.S. soldiers open fire or receive
small-arm fire from hiding insurgents. Helicopters arrive to scour
the terrain for culprits and attend to the wounded and dying. Bradley
fighting vehicles block off the area as the injured are ferried off to
high-tech medical facilities. A dead soldier's comrades
gather at outdoor ceremonies. The silence lingers after his name is read in a
commemorative roll call. A trumpeter plays taps. The Associated Press
contributed to this report. External link:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-iraqnew1101,0,7256363.story |