Pentagon: Cold-blooded carnage soaring in Iraq ("metrics" for progress)

[rodeodance]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/01/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_topstories&eref=yahoo

Pentagon: Cold-blooded carnage soaring in Iraq

POSTED: 7:34 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2006

Story Highlights
• Iraq death squads killing hundreds each month, U.S. military reports
• Iraqi casualties up 51 percent in June-August; attacks up 15 percent
• Current violence not civil war, officials conclude
• Report compiled by Pentagon each quarter to submit to Congress




.....# U.S. troops transferred security responsibilities Friday in most of the key northern province of Tameem to two Iraqi army battalions. Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division made the transfer during a ceremony at an Iraqi military base outside Kirkuk. That oil-rich city and Hawija will remain under U.S.-led coalition control.

# Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday said Iraqi security forces soon will assume leadership responsibility in the southern province of Thiqar. Iraqis recently took control of security in Muthanna province from the British.

# A U.S. Marine and soldier died Wednesday "due to enemy action" during operations in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. Since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, there have been 2,633 U.S. military fatalities. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.