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Postwar Iraq Toll Exceeds Combat Deaths

 

By ANDREW ENGLAND (Direct descendent of Joseph Stalin! - tha malcontent)
 Associated Press Writer Aug 26, 11:51 AM EDT

KHALIS, Iraq (AP) � The toll of U.S. troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the number killed in major combat on Tuesday, reaching 139 with the death of a soldier in a roadside bombing.

 

(ap) - FACT: Of the 139 deaths, 62 of them were combat related in the "occupation" phase, compared with 115 during the "Major Combat" phase of Iraq II.  If the AP was not attempting to create as much bad news as humanly possible for our President, they would clarify this Fact, instead of Dishonestly creating an EXCESSIVELY negative perception about the inevitable deaths that we are suffering.  An Honest appraisal, which the AP is incapable of, would be that Combat related deaths in the occupation phase, are nearly half of what they were during the short period of major combat, and the period of occupation is a much greater distance of time so far, and will only get longer.  When you take a country of 26 million people, using around 150,000 troops, in a matter of weeks, and lose, not thousands, not even hundreds, but only 10's of 10's of men in the process, including those lost during the occupation, then it should Honestly be reported as nothing more or less than the MOST successful military campaign in the History of mankind.  If the AP had covered the over 200 non-combat accidental deaths in the calendar year 2002, the same way they have covered the occupational deaths, both combat, and non-combat, in Iraq II, the American people would have been wondering what was wrong with our military.  The collective "Free Press" is covering these Deaths, each and every one Tragic, as if it were Vietnam all over again... That is the Real tragedy for the troops who have died, and those who remain to fight and those who fought and died in Vietnam.  It undermines their mission and boarders on Treason in my view... If the "Free Press" had any shame!  This is all of the regurgitated, redundancy of "nothing but bad news out of Iraq II" that I can take, so feel free to continue, if you so desire!  The "Free Press" was DEAD wrong in their dire predictions about the War, and the occupation that has followed, with their "1,000's of US Casualties" chicken-littling, and this current coverage is an example of their bitterness manifested! - tha malcontent)

Also Tuesday, hundreds of U.S. soldiers raided a northern town in a bid to smash a crime ring wanted for murder, gunrunning and a terrorist attack on a police station that killed an American soldier earlier this month.

Soldiers backed by tanks, helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles stormed Khalis, 42 miles north of Baghdad, hunting for the gang's notorious leader, Lateef Hamed al Kubaishat - known as Lateef by U.S. forces, said Col. David Hogg, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade.

Soldiers caught 24 members of the "terrorist organization" but Lateef appeared to have eluded capture, Hogg said.

"Their primary focus is probably criminal activity, but they have attacked coalition forces through direct and indirect means," Hogg told The Associated Press. "As long as he (Lateef) is in place we will not be able to establish the conditions for the Iraqi police to establish law and order in the area."

The gang claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded outside the police headquarters in nearby Baqouba on Aug. 10, killing one U.S. military policeman, U.S. forces said. Lateef is also accused of selling weapons, burning down the Baqouba courthouse to destroy criminal records and murdering a prostitute whom he accused of providing services to U.S. troops in the area.

Lateef was imprisoned and serving multiple life sentences for murder until Saddam Hussein granted amnesty to all prisoners in October as the United States ratcheted up its case for invading Iraq, according to U.S. intelligence officers.

U.S. Army officers in the area have said they are being attacked by Baath Party loyalists, Fedayeen Saddam militia fighters and criminal gangs who simply want the region to remain unstable so they can carryout their activities unhindered.

The solider killed Tuesday was riding in support convoy hit by a bomb in the town of Hamariyah, 16 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military announced. Two other soldiers were wounded.

The incident brought the death toll since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat, to one more than the number of troops who died during heavy fighting before that date. Since the war began March 20, 277 U.S. forces have died.

Tuesday's raid was part of operation "Ivy Needle" launched by the 4th Infantry Division throughout its region of control. It was designed to neutralize paramilitary forces, Saddam loyalists, Fedayeen Saddam militia and other subversive elements, 4th Infantry spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle said.

The operations consists of "surgical strikes on remote areas ... where in the past we haven't had enduring military presence," Aberle said.

In Iraq's second holiest Shiite city, Karbala, Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Lopez handed over command to a Bulgarian officer whose 250-member force will begin patrolling the region. The Bulgarians are part of a larger 9,500-member international force led by Poland that will try to secure the zone in south-central Iraq that has been under the control of U.S. Marines.

A formal hand-over to a Polish commander for the entire zone will take place Sept. 3. However, Polish forces have already come under attack. Several mortar shells were fired at a Polish base in Karbala on Monday night, missing their target and causing no damage or injuries, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said in Warsaw. Polish media reported five to seven shells were fired at the logistics base.

"Those were warning shots indicating that there are still people ready to fight for Saddam Hussein's ideas," Szmajdzinski said.

In Baghdad, thousands of Shiite Muslims protested peacefully Monday night outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition, charging the occupation force was lax on security and did too little to stop a weekend of ethnic bloodshed in the north and the bombing at the house of an important Muslim Shiite cleric in the south.

The Baghdad protest moved, after about an hour, to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan office in Baghdad. The protesters alleged the Kurdish organization started the fighting Friday night in Tuz Kharmato and continued attacks on Turkomen tribesmen the next day in Kirkuk, 115 miles north of Baghdad. Eleven people died.

The protesters dispersed quietly, ahead of the 11 p.m. Baghdad curfew.

The Baghdad protesters, mainly from the Sadr City slum, had sided with the Turkomen, also Shiites. A PUK spokesman in Baghdad told The Associated Press the violence was the work of Saddam Hussein sympathizers trying to complicate the already tense security situation in the country by adding the specter of ethnic and religious violence to the mix. Kurds are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

 

 


� Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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