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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Higher US Iraq toll not due to eroded security: general (So "Alice In Wonderland" is Now The War Plan In Iraq) Higher US Iraq toll not due to eroded security: general 1 hour ago WASHINGTON (AFP) — The jump in April in US soldier deaths in Iraq -- at 49 the highest monthly toll since September 2007 -- does not reflect deteriorated security in the country, a senior US military official said Wednesday. "While it is sad to see an increase in casualties, I don't think it is necessarily indicative of a major change in the operating environment," said Lieutenant General Carter Ham, Joint Staff director for operations in the US Department of Defense. "When the level of fighting increases, then sadly the number of casualties does tend to rise," he said. The higher toll came after a jump in fighting with Shiite militias in Iraq, but Ham said it did not mean overall conditions had worsened. "I am not sure a one-month increase would be interpreted by most people as a changed condition" on the ground, he said. Of the 49 soldiers killed in Iraq during April, 23 died in Baghdad, where US forces have been engaged in intense street fighting with Shiite militias, mainly those of the Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The clashes pushed Iraqi deaths for the month to at least 1,073, according to Iraqi officials, marginally lower than March's 1,082 but sharply up from the previous six months. The total number of US military deaths in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion is 4,061, according to an AFP count based on figures from the independent website icasualties.org. Hosted by Google Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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