U.S. deaths in Iraq lowest since March 2006

[unhappycamper]

U.S. deaths in Iraq lowest since March 2006
By Jim Michaels - USA TODAY
Posted : Tuesday Oct 30, 2007 21:26:54 EDT

The number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq is headed for the lowest level in more than a year and the fifth consecutive monthly decline.

Twenty-seven Americans have been killed in action in October, with one day left in the month, Pentagon records show. That would be the lowest monthly level since March 2006, when 27 servicemembers died in hostile action, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Pentagon reports.

The total number of U.S. deaths, including accidents, in October so far is 35, records show.

A new strategy, backed by 30,000 more U.S. troops, has led to a decline in violence and weakened al-Qaida, commanders say. The U.S. military started building combat outposts and moving troops outside major bases earlier this year in an attempt to provide more security.

That strategy led to higher U.S. casualties in the spring, as the new troops moved into areas that had been insurgent sanctuaries. Combat deaths in April and May were the highest for a two-month period since the war started in March 2003, records show.

More recently, casualties have declined as security has been established. “I think we’ve turned the corner,” Brig. Gen. John Campbell, an assistant commander for the U.S. division in Baghdad, said Tuesday in an interview from Iraq.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/gns_iraqtoll_071030/

[DCKit]

1. A Change in Tactics? Ethnic Cleansing Completed?

Every time they've "turned a corner" in the past five years, they've run into something worse.

Sorry, but they're going to have to have a run of more than a couple of months with a lower death toll before I'm convinced.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Good news. Now, let's work on gettin' them home, before the numbers

start to tick upward again.