50 Americans Killed in Iraq in Last Two Weeks

[Bronco_Beerslug]

There is absolutely no justification for this senseless sacrifice of Americans!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------
2,660 Iraq civilians killed in September
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writers Wed Oct 11

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September, according to new Health Ministry figures — 400 more than the month before despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep aimed at reining in violence.

The numbers indicate how tough the vital battle to secure Baghdad has proven amid a wave of bloodshed this year, not only from Sunni Arab insurgents but also from Shiite and Sunni death squads who kidnap and kill members of the opposing sect.

So far, October has brought no relief. A U.S. soldier died Wednesday from a roadside bomb while patrolling in Baghdad. That brought to 40 the number of Americans killed across Iraq the past 11 days — a pace not seen since the U.S. attack on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in November 2004.

Three car bombs in different parts of Baghdad and attacks elsewhere in the country killed at least 14 Iraqis on Wednesday. Bodies of 11 suspected victims of sectarian slayings were found around the southern city of Kut, while police in the northern city of Mosul discovered the beheaded corpse of a priest.

No cumulative figures for Iraqi deaths in October have been released. But several times this month, police have reported finding 50 to 60 bodies dumped around Baghdad over a 24-hour period, suggesting the bloodshed has not waned.

The Health Ministry figures emerged as a controversial new study claimed the Iraqi death toll in the war since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 is vastly higher than believed. The study, to be published Thursday by the British medical journal The Lancet, said more than 600,000 had been killed, more than 10 times most estimates.

CONT (http://tinyurl.com/y4h9wy)

[Atlas]

As of today 60 Soldiers have been killed. But Have faith Slug... It's for a good cause???

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

91 die in sectarian violence in Iraq
AP - 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four days of sectarian slaughter killed at least 91 people by Monday in Balad, a town near a major U.S. air base an hour's drive north of the capital. Elsewhere, 60 Iraqis died in attacks and 16 tortured bodies were found. The U.S. command said seven American troops died in fighting a day earlier. That raised the U.S. toll to 58 killed in the first two weeks of October, a pace that if continued would make the month the worst for coalition forces since 107 U.S. and 10 British soldiers died in January 2005.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Iraq

The court-selected pinhead's answer?

Smear your political opponents for being "soft on terror" and pretend this is the same thing as enunciating a strategy.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

10 more troops killed in one day yesterday.

--------------------------------------------------------
U.S. military says 10 troops killed in Iraq
By Ibon Villelabeitia 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military announced on Wednesday the deaths of 10 U.S. troops in
Iraq on Tuesday, an unusually bloody day for American soldiers battling sectarian violence and a Sunni Arab insurgency.

The rise in U.S. deaths in Iraq coincides with the run-up to U.S. congressional elections next month, in which the Iraq war has become a major issue.
President George W. Bush's popularity has been hurt by growing discontent over the war.

Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, who is drafting a widely anticipated report on possible alternatives to current U.S. policy in Iraq, has warned there is no "magic bullet" to solve deepening problems in Iraq.

At least 68 U.S. troops have been killed in October -- a pace, that if continues, would make it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since January 2005. At least 2,777 have died since the invasion in 2003.

After falling to 43 in July, the U.S. toll rose to 65 in August and to 71 in September. U.S. commanders, who have declared the fight for Baghdad the war's main effort, have conducted major security sweeps in the capital since August, massing neighborhoods with troops to flush out militants.

Some 15,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad are focusing efforts in the sprawling capital on curbing death squads and other armed groups. U.S. commanders have attributed the rising death toll to more aggressive patrolling in Baghdad, the epicenter of sectarian violence that kills 100 people a day.
CONT (http://tinyurl.com/yhj4pu)