More Troops Killed in July than June in Iraq, says Military
by Tom Lasseter
BAGHDAD, Iraq - More U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq during the first three weeks of July than in the entire month of June, dashing hopes that the handover of sovereignty at the end of last month would ease U.S. losses or bring Iraqis a respite from violence.
During June, 26 American soldiers died in hostile fire in Iraq. As of Thursday, 30 had been killed so far in July, according to numbers from U.S. Central Command.
The fighting between insurgents and American soldiers has not diminished, particularly in Iraq's Anbar province, where U.S. forces had scaled back patrols after more than a year of fierce battles.
On Wednesday, a U.S. Marine convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, the provincial seat, and the firefight that followed raged for most of the day. By the end, 25 insurgents were killed and 14 troops were wounded.
Between 75 and 100 fighters - called "holy warriors" by local Iraqis - took part in the battle, which included intense gunfire, rocket propelled grenades and American air strikes, according to a report from U.S. military officials.
The violence will test the recently installed interim Iraqi government. While the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, has talked tough about cracking down on the insurgency, he lacks the forces to do more than round up criminals, a less well-armed group that doesn't pose as big a threat to national stability.
Baghdad, itself wracked by car bombs and shootouts, is ringed by rebel strongholds. To the south, the town of Mahmudiya is violent, and farther south, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr's men control the streets Kufa and Najaf. To the west, Fallujah and Ramadi have seen nonstop insurgent attacks. And to the north, Baqubah and Samarra are growing increasingly restive.
Kidnappings of foreigners have become endemic. Police found a headless body floating in the Tigris River in northern Iraq on Thursday, and it was widely believed to be that of a Bulgarian contractor taken hostage last month. The Philippines pulled its troops out of Iraq this week after a contractor was kidnapped and threatened with decapitation if his country's forces didn't leave Iraq. Currently there are seven men - three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian - being held captive by gunmen demanding that those countries bar citizens from working in Iraq.
The insurgency appears to consist of fighters loyal to deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, radical Iraq Islamic fighters and jihadists who have slipped in from neighboring countries. Unclear is how the different groups cooperate, if at all, as well as their strength in numbers and firepower.
"At the moment, (Allawi's) only effective forces are the US and coalition military," said Juan R.I. Cole, a professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan who is considered a top U.S. expert on Iraq. "They clearly have no idea how to do counter-insurgency effectively and have been steadily losing the country, a trend I expect to continue."
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