2007 virtually certain to be bloodiest year yet for American troops in Iraq

06 November 2007

With nearly two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in US deaths. At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year - the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures.

If four more US troops die by the year's end, this year will surpass 2004 as the bloodiest year of the war for the US.

Some 850 troops died in 2004, mostly in larger, more conventional battles like the campaign to cleanse Fallujah of Sunni militants in November.

But the American military in Iraq reached its highest troop levels in Iraq this year - 165,000. Moreover, the military's decision to send soldiers out of large bases and into Iraqi communities means more troops have seen more "contact with enemy forces" than ever before, said Major Winfield Danielson, a US military spokesman in Baghdad.

"It's due to the troop surge, which allowed us to go into areas that were previously safe havens for insurgents," Danielson said. "Having more soldiers, and having them out in the communities, certainly contributes to our casualties."

Last spring, US platoons took up positions - often in abandoned houses or in muddy, half-collapsed police stations - at the heart of neighborhoods across Baghdad and nearby communities.  The idea was to fight the "three-block war" - in the words of the Pentagon counterinsurgency manual written in part by America's Iraq commander, General David Petraeus - by embedding US forces inside Iraqi communities in order to win the trust and, crucially, the aid of residents.

The US troop increase also put pressure on hard-line Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who called a formal cease-fire in August. That, it appears, has slashed the number of mutilated bodies discovered on the banks of the Tigris River and other dump sites each day, the apparent victims of sectarian murders.

Ironically, though, the same strategy that US military officials says has reduced violence so sharply in recent months is what made 2007 so deadly for American forces.

Small patrol bases make attractive targets for insurgents. In April, nine US soldiers were killed and 20 wounded when two suicide truck bombers rammed into their building in the heart of volatile Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. It was the deadliest attack on US troops in Iraq in a year and a half.

US troops ventured out on Iraq's roads more frequently in 2007, and insurgents responded by building larger, more powerful and more-difficult-to-detect bombs. However, approaching the year's end - more than four months after US forces completed the 30,000-strong force buildup - the monthly death toll among Americans and Iraqis has fallen dramatically.

At least 1,023 Iraqi civilians died in September; in October, that figure was just 875. The number of US troop deaths dropped from 65 to 36 in the same period, according to statistics kept by the AP. That's the lowest monthly toll of American deaths this year.

On average, at least 56 Iraqis - both civilians and members of the security forces - have died each day so far in 2007.

In violence on Monday, US forces killed five suspects and detained 30 others Monday in raids against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the military said.

In one operation northwest of Baqouba, American troops came under fire while searching for a suspected sniper who was also accused of emplacing roadside bombs, the military said in a statement.

Soldiers called for support from helicopter gunships, which fired and killed three men - one of whom was wearing a suicide vest, the military said. Two suspects were captured there, along with multiple grenades and ammunition, it said.

In Tarmiyya, also north of the Iraqi capital, US aircraft bombed a building where an alleged Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader was believed to be hiding, the statement said. Two men were killed in the blast. Secondary explosions indicated that the building had stored weapons and ammunition, it said.

Two more suspects were captured in a separate raid west of Tarmiyyh, the military said.

American forces also captured eight suspects in Kirkuk, eight in Tikrit, and 10 in Mosul, the statement said.

Also, Britain will start accepting applications for refuge and financial assistance from Iraqi translators and others who have worked with British forces in Iraq, the British military said on Monday.

With Britain drawing down the number of its troops in Iraq, the treatment of interpreters who have worked for British forces has become a sensitive issue after several were hunted down and killed by militants.

In the past Iraqi staff were not given asylum in Britain, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a review of that policy in August. Washington is under similar pressure to help the hundreds of Iraqi interpreters working with US forces and consular officials. - AP, Reuters