Deadliest but declining

[unhappycamper]

Soldiers rest after searching for three comrades missing after a May 12 attack near Youssifiyah, Iraq. May was the worst month for combat deaths this year, with 126. But December marks the lowest total since February 2004.


Deadliest but declining
By Bradley Brooks - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 1, 2008 9:08:07 EST

BAGHDAD — The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.

That said, U.S. combat deaths in Iraq declined for the seventh consecutive month and hit their lowest monthly total since February 2004, according to Pentagon casualty records.

As of Sunday, 14 U.S. troops have been killed in combat in December. Six more died in non-combat-related incidents. The last month in which fewer than 20 U.S. troops were killed in combat was February 2004, when 12 troops were killed.

American commanders and diplomats, however, said the battlefield gains against insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq offer only a partial picture of where the country stands as the war moves toward its five-year mark in March.

“We’re focusing our energy on building on what coalition and Iraqi troopers have accomplished in 2007,” Army Gen. David Petraeus told a group of western journalists on Saturday. “Success will not, however, be akin to flipping on a light switch. It will emerge slowly and fitfully, with reverses as well as advances, accumulating fewer bad days and gradually more good days.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_troopsyear_080101/