US Death Rate Falls In Iraq

IRAQ WARS

US soldiers in southern Baghdad.

by Martin Sieff
UPI Senior News Analyst
Washington (UPI) April 30, 2007
U.S. fatality rates in Iraq have fallen during the past two weeks despite insurgent attempts to target American soldiers deployed as part of the "surge" strategy. As of Monday, 3,342 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq since the start of military operations to topple Saddam Hussein on March 19, 2003. Of these, 2,723 were killed in action, according to official figures issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.

In all, 33 U.S. soldiers were killed in the 12-day period from April 19 through Monday at an average rate of 2.75 per day. This marked a significant improvement on the previous 28-day period from March 22 to April 18 when 87 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just over 3.1 per day. It was also considerably better than the previous 22 day period from Feb. 28 to March 21, when 67 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just over three per day.

The rate at which U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq has therefore improved on levels that were previously remarkably stable since the beginning of this year. Some 79 U.S. soldiers were killed in the 27-day period from Feb. 1 to Feb. 27 at an average rate of just over 2.93 per day. Those figures were almost identical to the previous 27-day period, when 78 U.S. troops were killed from Jan. 4 to Jan. 31 at an average rate of 2.81 per day.

These figures support our previous conclusion that the insurgents are continuing to avoid bloody direct confrontations with U.S. forces as the nearly three-month-old "surge" strategy drive to secure Baghdad continues. They appear to be continuing to focus on inflicting mass casualties on Shiite Muslim civilians in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, in order to discredit the "surge" strategy.

The latest figures are also markedly better than the fatality rate of 3.4 killed per day during the 29-day period from Dec. 7 to Jan. 4, when 99 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq. But the latest figures are still poorer than the 16-day period from Nov. 21 to Dec. 6, when 35 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just over 2.2 per day.

The latest figures remain above those for the 14-day period from Nov. 7 to Nov. 20, when 32 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just below 2.3 per day. But they are much better than the 22-day period from Oct. 16 to Nov. 6, when 371 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just below 3.23 per day.

During the 18-day period from Sept. 28 to Oct. 15, 56 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of just over 3.1 per day. That rate was identical to the one we reported Oct. 1 in these columns for the nine days from Sept. 19 to Sept. 27, when 28 U.S. soldiers were killed at an average rate of 3.1 per day.

At that time, we noted that these figures were far higher than the rate during the previous 18-day period, when 33 U.S. soldiers were killed from Sept. 1 to Sept. 18, at an average rate of 1.77 per day. Those Sept. 19-Oct. 15 figures were almost identical to the average rate per day of the past 50 days.

As of Wednesday, 24,912 U.S. soldiers had been injured in Iraq since the start of military operations to topple Saddam. During the 12 days from April 19 through April 30, 148 U.S. troops were wounded at an average rate of 12.33 per day.

This was more than 33 percent worse than the rate of just over nine per day during the previous 28 day period from March 22 to April 18 when 254 U.S. soldiers were injured. But the latest figures were nevertheless almost 50 percent better than the rate of 23.2 wounded per day during the 22 day period from Feb. 28 to March 21.

These figures confirm the positive trend we noted in our previous column. It is especially notable as it occurred during a period of time when up to 30,000 additional U.S. troops were being sent to Iraq as part of President George W. Bush's new "surge" strategy.

The rate also marked a 25 percent improvement on the 27-day period from Feb. 1 to Feb. 27, when 398 U.S. soldiers were injured at an average rate of 16.9 per day. And that figure was only marginally below the figures for the previous 27-day period from Jan. 4 to Jan. 31, when 465 U.S. soldiers were injured at an average rate of 17.2 per day.

From Oct. 16 to Nov. 6, 524 U.S. soldiers were injured in Iraq at an average rate of 23.81 per day. That rate of casualties suffered was virtually identical to the previous 18-day period from Sept. 28 to Oct. 15, when 427 U.S. soldiers were injured in Iraq at an average rate of 23.72 per day.

Source: United Press International

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IRAQ WARS

US Concerned About Iraqi Purge

Washington (AFP) Apr 30, 2007
Washington on Monday expressed concern about reports that aides to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki played key roles in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and police officers who tried to rein in Shiite militias. "We're aware of the reports, we're concerned about them, and that will be a focus of conversations," with top Iraqi officials, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters. "Those are the kinds of things we do discuss with the Iraqis."

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