{"article":{"id":116660,"heading":"9\/7: Today, U.S. Reach 1,000 Military Deaths in Iraq!","author":"Lee Siu Hin","created":"2004-09-08 18:14:39","modified":"2004-09-08 18:14:39","last_modified":"Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:14:39","article":"

Peace No War Iraq Watch: http:\/\/www.peacenowar.net\/#Iraq<\/a>

July 2003 \"Report from Baghdad\": http:\/\/www.actionla.org\/Iraq\/IraqReport\/intro.html<\/a>



Latest \"Iraq Body Count\" on Civilian Causalities in Iraq

http:\/\/www.iraqbodycount.org\/<\/a>

Minimum: 11,793

Maximum: 13,802

Iraqi Wounded: 40,0000

Iraqi soldiers dead during major combat: 4,895-6,370

US Military Causalities Count: http:\/\/icasualties.org\/oif\/<\/a>



More Than 1,000 Military Deaths in Iraq

By HAMZA HENDAWI

.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed 1,000 Tuesday, an Associated Press tally showed, as a spike in fighting with both Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed seven Americans in scattered clashes in the Baghdad area.

The count includes 998 U.S. troops and three civilian contractors killed while working for the Pentagon. The tally was compiled by the AP based on Pentagon records, AP reporting from Iraq, and reports from soldiers' families.

It includes deaths from hostile and non-hostile causes since President Bush launched a campaign in March 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. A few deaths occurred in neighboring Kuwait.

The grim milestone was surpassed after a spike in clashes that has killed 14 American service members in the past two days. Two soldiers died in fighting Tuesday with militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Five other Americans died Tuesday in separate attacks, mostly in the Baghdad area.

Earlier Tuesday, during a news conference at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sought to play down the impact of the milestone, saying the ``civilized world'' had long passed the 1,000th death at the hands of terrorists.

The Bush administration has long linked the Iraq conflict to the war on terrorism. The Sept. 11 Commission concluded that Iraq and al-Qaida did not have a ``collaborative relationship'' before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, and some have questioned to what extent foreign terror groups are involved in the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq.

09\/07\/04 16:18 EDT



Also Please Read..

1) 1,100 US troops injured in Iraq in August (Washington Post)

2) Six Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks (Associated Press)

3) Mortar Attack Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq (Associated Press)

4) September 5-7, Lists of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq (U.S. Department of Defense)

=====================================================

1) 1,100 US troops injured in Iraq in August

By: washingtonpost on: 05.09.2004



About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq during August,

by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and

an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas.

U.S. medical commanders say the sharp rise in battlefield injuries reflects

more than three weeks of fighting by two Army and one Marine battalion in

the southern city of Najaf. At the same time, U.S. units frequently faced

combat in a sprawling Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad and in the Sunni cities

of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra, all of which remain under the control of

insurgents two months after the transfer of political authority.

\"They were doing battlefield urban operations in four places at one time,\"

said Lt. Col. Albert Maas, operations officer for the 2nd Medical Brigade,

which oversees U.S. combat hospitals in Iraq. \"It's like working in

downtown Detroit. You're going literally building to building.\"

The sharp rise in wounded was, for the first time, accompanied by a far

less steep climb in battlefield fatalities. Since the start of the war in

March 2003, 979 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and almost 7,000 have been

wounded. Until last month, however, the monthly tallies of fatalities and

wounded rose and fell roughly in proportion.

In August, 66 U.S. service personnel were killed in Iraq, according to the

Defense Department. The toll was the highest since May, when 80 fatalities

were recorded. But it was well below the 135 U.S. combat deaths in April,

when a sporadic guerrilla war that had largely been confined to the

so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad spread to cities across

the previously quiescent Shiite Muslim belt in southern Iraq. The U.S.

military does not routinely release the reported number of Iraqi casualties

and wounded.

Commanders said they had no immediate concrete explanation for why the

number of wounded increased so sharply without a comparable rise in combat

deaths.

\"All I know is I've got more patients here,\" said Col. Ryck Beitz,

commander of the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, which admitted

425 patients last month, a new high.

One possible explanation lay in the brawn some units brought to the fight

in crowded city centers. In Najaf, for example, two of the three U.S.

battalions squaring off in close quarters against a Shiite militia were

categorized as \"heavy armored.\" Army officers said their Abrams tanks and

Bradley Fighting Vehicles not only offer substantial protection from

incoming fire, but also answered with immediate and overwhelming

large-caliber salvos.

\"We've been given the best tools in the world for waging war,\" said Maj.

Tim Karcher of the 2nd battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division's 7th

Regiment. In two weeks of almost constant combat, the heavily armored

battalion sustained several injuries, but not a single fatality, as it

fought its way through Najaf's crowded old city.

Lives surely were also saved by the proximity of the fighting to a nearby

combat hospital; the forward surgical station at Babylon is a short Black

Hawk helicopter hop from Najaf.

Maj. Dellone Pascascio, who compiles tallies of U.S. wounded across Iraq,

said injuries sustained in conventional fighting may tend to be slightly

less severe than those inflicted by the improvised explosive devices

planted along roadsides that continue to kill and maim U.S. forces by

spraying shrapnel upward.

There were also indications that troops might have suffered more severe

wounds in August than in previous months.

At the Baghdad hospital, staff members are accustomed to seeing the most

severely injured soldiers and Marines. The hospital, the only one in Iraq

where the military's brain and eye surgeons work, handles the worst head

wounds. Normally, perhaps half the patients who come to the emergency room

qualify as \"acute\" cases, a term that indicates severity and urgency.

\"A soldier who comes in and is almost bleeding to death will require more

care than someone who is just shot with a bullet,\" Beitz explained.

In August, however, the rate of acute cases jumped to three of four ER

patients.

\"It was intense,\" said Lt. Col. Greg Kidwell, who oversees the emergency

room at the hospital.

Capt. Neil Taufen, an emergency room physician, said the pace was all the

more striking because it came after a quiet stretch.

\"July was just dull, and it was like: Everything's going to be all right.

And then Najaf fired up, and it was just like nothing had ever changed,\"

said Taufen, of Fort Sill, Okla.

Najaf and the neighboring town of Kufa, about 90 miles south of Baghdad,

have been quiet since a peace deal was brokered in late August by Grand

Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Last week, an informal cease-fire also took hold in

Sadr City, the Shiite slum that is the main stronghold of junior cleric

Moqtada Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, which fought in Najaf.

But U.S. forces continued to clash with Sunni Muslim insurgents and

foreign-born fighters west and north of Baghdad. Twenty-six Marines were

killed during August in Anbar province, which takes in Fallujah and Ramadi

and extends across the western desert to the Syrian border. Insurgents hold

sway in both cities and routinely attack U.S. patrols.

\"It's always kind of a smoldering fight out there,\" Kidwell said.

Parts of Baghdad also remain combat zones.

Propped on pillows in a ward of the Baghdad combat hospital Saturday

afternoon, Spec. Christopher Riang, 19, wore a zipper of surgical staples

up his abdomen after a nasty surprise the night before off the capital's

hostile Haifa Street.

\"I yelled 'grenade!' and made sure the Iraqi translator took off,\" he said,

describing the overnight ambush that left him with a belly full of steel

shards. \"Then I took off. I guess I couldn't outrun the grenade.\"

The interpreter was also injured, as were four other 1st Cavalry soldiers

caught in the alley when grenades began raining down.

\"Almost everybody took shrapnel,\" said Capt. Chris Ford, the company

commander. Three soldiers were injured lightly enough to return to duty

after treatment, as are about 45 percent of U.S. forces wounded in Iraq.

Two others needed medical evacuation. The interpreter went home.

\"Basically, we had to fight our way out of that alley,\" Ford said. Bradleys

came to help, he said, but most of the patrolling in the largely hostile

neighborhood is conducted on foot.

\"It's a labyrinth,\" Ford said. \"And it's conducive to their kind of fighting.\"

More and more often, children are lobbing the grenades, Ford said.

Insurgents offer boys of 10 or 12 years old $150 to toss a grenade at a

U.S. patrol, the captain said.

\"For the longest time, we've had a good relationship with the children,\"

Ford said. \"Now this. Who enjoys putting a bead on a kid?

\"Nobody. That's why they paid them.\"

====================================================

2) Six Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks

.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Six American soldiers have been killed in attacks in and around Baghdad since midday Monday, the U.S. military said in separate statements Tuesday.

In total, 997 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press based on Defense Department figures.

A soldier from the Army's 13th Corps Support Command was killed in a roadside bomb attack near Qayarrah, just north of Baghdad, at noon Monday.

A second soldier from the 13th Corps Support Command was killed by a roadside bomb late Monday.

A soldier with Task Force Baghdad died Monday from wounds sustained during an unspecified attack in Baghdad.

Another Task Force Baghdad soldier died early Tuesday from wounds sustained from a roadside bombing against his convoy a day earlier in Baghdad.

A third Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade during clashes in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City early Tuesday.

One soldier from the 89th Military Police Brigade was killed by small arms fire Tuesday in west Baghdad.

The military said it was withholding the names of all the dead soldiers pending family notification.

The latest deaths came in addition to the killing of seven Marines early Monday when a car bomb exploded near their convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

09\/07\/04 11:21 EDT



====================================================

3) Mortar Attack Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

.c The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A mortar attack Sunday killed two U.S. soldiers and left 16 wounded - one critically - at a base west of the Iraqi capital.

Maj. Richard Spiegel of the Army's 13th Corps Support Command said the mortar barrage slammed into Logistical Base Seitz, on Baghdad's western outskirts, around 6 p.m. local time.

Eight of the injured were evacuated by air to the Army's 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, where the two later died of their wounds, Spiegel said.

One wounded soldier was listed in critical condition, and four others returned to duty. Names of the dead and wounded were being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

The soldiers killed and wounded all belonged to the Army's 13th Corps Support Command, which oversees distribution of military fuel, food, water and other supplies to U.S. forces across Iraq.

As of Friday, 976 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.

U.S. bases are daily targets of insurgents' mortar and rocket barrages. Most of the munitions explode without injury.

Also Sunday, a car bomb exploded outside an air base used by U.S. forces near Dijiel, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, injuring one American soldier and two Iraqi civilians, the U.S. military said. Three suspects were detained near the site of the attack, said Army Sgt. Robert Powell.



09\/05\/04 15:14 EDT

==============================================================

4) September 5-7, Lists of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq



DoD Identifies Marine Casualties

No. 856-04

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 04, 2004

Media Contact: Marine Corps Public Affairs - (703) 614-4309

Public\/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two Marines who were

supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Nicholas Perez, 19, of Austin, Texas.

Capt. Alan Rowe, 35, of Hagerman, Idaho.

Both Marines died Sept 3 due to enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Perez was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I

Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine

Palms, Calif. Rowe was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine

Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center,

Twentynine Palms, Calif.

For further information related to these Marines contact the Marine Corps Air

Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms Public Affairs Office at (760) 830-6213.

[Web Version: http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/releases\/2004\/nr20040904-1211.html<\/a>]



DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

No. 857-04

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 05, 2004

Media Contact: Marine Corps Public Affairs - (703) 614-4309

Public\/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was

supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

1st Lieutenant Ronald Winchester, 25, of Rockville Center, N.Y., died Sept 3

due to enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Winchester was assigned to 1st

Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force,

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

For further information related to these Marines contact the Marine Corps Air

Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms Public Affairs Office at (760) 830-6213.

[Web Version: http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/releases\/2004\/nr20040905-1212.html<\/a>]



DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

No. 858-04

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 05, 2004

Media Contact: Marine Corps Public Affairs - (703) 614-4309

Public\/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was

supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Nicholas Wilt, 23, of Tampa, Fla, died Sept 3 due to enemy action

in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Wilt was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marine

Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air

Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

For further information related to these Marines contact the Marine Corps Air

Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms Public Affairs Office at (760) 830-6213.

[Web Version: http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/releases\/2004\/nr20040905-1213.html<\/a>]



DoD Identifies Navy Casualty

No. 861-04

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 07, 2004

Media Contact: Navy Public Affairs - (703) 697-5342

Public\/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was

supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric L. Knott, 21, of Grand Island, Neb., was

killed Sept. 4 when the area in which he was working was struck by enemy fire.

Knott died of shrapnel wounds.

Knott was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4, Port

Hueneme, Calif.

For further information related to this release, contact Navy Public

Affairs at (703) 697-5342.

[Web Version: http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/releases\/2004\/nr20040907-1216.html<\/a>]



DoD Identifies Army Casualty

No. 862-04

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 07, 2004

Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703) 692-2000

Public\/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who

was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Gary A. Vaillant, 41, of Trujillo, Puerto Rico, died Sept.

5 in Khalidiya, Iraq, when his tank ran over an improvised explosive device.

Vaillant was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 72nd Armor, Camp Casey, Korea.

The incident is under investigation.

For further information related to this release, contact Army Public

Affairs at (703) 692-2000.



[Web Version: http:\/\/www.defenselink.mil\/releases\/2004\/nr20040907-1215.html<\/a>]



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<\/p>\n","contact":"Lee Siu Hin","link":"URL: http:\/\/www.peacenowar.net\/","address":"Los Angeles, CA","phone":"(213)403-0131","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"By: Iraq Watch - Peace No War Network\r\nSeptember 7, 2004\r\n","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/09\/116660.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}