This was far higher than the rate during the previous 18-day period, when 33 U.S. soldiers were killed from Sept. 1 through Sept. 18, at an average rate of 1.77 per day.

The latest figures were also 50 percent worse than the two-week period from Aug. 18 through Aug. 31, when 29 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just over two per day.

U.S. soldiers were killed during the three-week period from July 28 through Aug. 17 at an average rate of 2.33 per day. From July 21 through July 27, 14 U.S. soldiers were killed, at an average rate of two per day.

Before that relatively stable five-week period, the rate at which U.S. soldiers were killed per day in Iraq had risen for almost eight weeks. Some 1.75 per day were killed during the eight-day period from July 13 through July 20. And 1.36 U.S. soldiers were killed per day during the 15 day period from June 29 through July 12. However, during the eight days from June 21 through June 28, 24 U.S. soldiers died at an average rate of three per day.

The Sept. 19-Sept. 27 figures may prove to be a statistical "spike" similar to those of the period June 21 through June 28. But they still rank as one of the two worst periods for U.S. casualties we have recorded during the past five months.

Some 1.75 U.S. soldiers per day died in Iraq during the seven-day period from June 14 through June 20. During the eight-day period of June 6-13, 2.5 U.S. soldiers were killed per day. During the six-day period of May 31-June 5, some 11 U.S. troops died in Iraq at an average rate of 1.82 per day.

During the 48-day period from April 13 to May 30, 107 U.S. troops died in Iraq at an average rate of just over 2.2 per day. But that were still slightly worse than the previous longer-term trend during the 68-day period from Feb. 4 to April 12, when 112 U.S. troops died in Iraq at an average rate of 1.65 per day.

The rate at which U.S. soldiers were injured in Iraq was also unusually high during the same nine day period. From Sept. 19 through Sept. 27, 355 U.S. soldiers were injured in Iraq, at an average rate of 39.44 per day.

This was more than double the rate of the previous 18-day period from Sept. 1 through Sept. 18, when 340 U.S. soldiers were in injured in Iraq at an average rate of 18.9 per day.

That 18-day average was almost identical to the rate of 18.7 per day who were injured from Aug. 18 through Aug. 31. The latest figures therefore show another dramatic upward spike compared with the previous seven weeks, during which the rate at which U.S. troops were injured in Iraq remained remarkably consistent. In the three-week period from July 28 through Aug. 17, 354 U.S. soldiers were injured at an average rate of 16.857 per day.

These figures were also vastly worse than the previous "spike" in the rate of U.S. wounded during the seven-day period from July 21 through July 27, when 169 U.S. soldiers were injured in Iraq at an average rate of 24.14 per day.

As of Sept. 27, 20,468 U.S. soldiers have been injured in Iraq since the start of hostilities.

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