US toll in Iraq in October is fourth highest of the war

AFP | November 1 2005

The killings of six more US soldiers in roadside explosions in Iraq Monday raised the US death toll for October to 93, making it the fourth deadliest month for the US military since the March 2003 invasion.

The week's casualties included the highest ranking army officer killed in action since the start of the war, Colonel William Wood, a defense official said.

Lawrence DiRita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said there was no single explanation for the increase in US deaths but said it reflected the growing power and sophistication of insurgent bombings.

"I think we see an adversary that continues to develop some sophistication on very deadly and increasingly precise standoff weapons, IEDs specifically," he said, referring to the military acronym for improvised explosive devices.

"They're trying different ways to place these things, they're trying to keep focused on US activities," DiRita told reporters. "We're always trying to learn off of them, they're always trying to learn off of us."

The insurgents' emphasis on bombings has been a prominent trend all year with the introduction of ever bigger, deadlier bombs and new techniques, such as "shaped" explosive charges capable of blowing through US armor.

DiRita said US forces also have got better at countering the bombings.

"We are seeing more powerful capabilities but we're getting better at interrupting the enemy's decision cycle, and getting better intelligence that is allowing us to stop more of these things, find more of them," he said.

In the latest attacks, four US soldiers were killed Monday when their patrol struck a makeshift bomb in the Yusufiyah district, southwest of Baghdad, the US military said.

Two other soldiers were also killed in an explosion while on patrol near the Anaconda base, on the outskirts of Balad, north of the capital, the military said.

On Sunday, a marine died when a third improvised bomb hit his vehicle near Al-Amiriyah, west of Baghdad, the military said.

Wood, the highest ranking army officer to be killed in action, was responding to a bombing in Baghdad on October 27 when a second bomb exploded, killing him, the Pentagon said in a statement. He was 44.

The deaths raised to 93 the number of US servicemembers who lost their lives in Iraq or as a result of wounds and injuries suffered in Iraq during the month, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon and military casualty reports.

The US monthly death toll was exceeded only in April 2004 when it reached 135; November 2004 when it hit 137; and January 2005 when 106 were killed, according to Pentagon figures. The tolls include combat and non-combat deaths.

Those higher death tolls were linked to major episodes in the insurgency. US forces battled uprisings in southern Iraq and the Sunni heartland city of Fallujah in April, and then stormed Fallujah in November of last year. In January, elections were held to a transitional national assembly.

US commanders have said they were anticipating rising insurgent violence to disrupt the October 15 referendum on the Iraqi constitution as well as the next national elections December 15.

The US death toll for the war broke the 2,000 mark last week and now stands at 2,021, according to an AFP tally. The Pentagon acknowledges only 2,010 deaths since March 2003

Last modified November 1, 2005