U.S. deaths in Iraq at seven-month high in April

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq reached a seven month high in April, with the reported deaths of three more soldiers on Wednesday bringing the monthly toll to 47, the highest since last September.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have been engaged in intense fighting over the past month with Shi'ite militia fighters in Baghdad's tightly-packed Sadr City slum.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who launched a crackdown against the Mehdi Army militia a month ago in the southern city of Basra, said on Wednesday the government would disarm the fighters by force if they refuse to lay down their weapons.

Two hospitals in Sadr City, the Shi'ite slum that has been the focus of fighting in the capital, said they had received the bodies of 421 Iraqis killed and treated more than 2,400 wounded there since late March. Government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly said the toll there was higher, with more than 900 killed.

Many of the dead and wounded have been civilians, caught in the crossfire in the crowded slum.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL3074402120080430?sp=true

[msongs]

1. obama and hillary vote to fund and support the war. they are complicit as much as bush/cheney nt

[LynnTheDem]

2. And now for the weather... Warm = attacking the occupiers.

Cold = lay low & resupply.

As has happened every single year since the illegal US invasion of a sovereign nation that hadn't done one damn thing against us. Winter in Iraq is COLD. So the freedom fighters and etc lie low. Come spring and warmer weather, they come out fighting.

Every winter the bushCabal chant about their "success"; every spring, summer & fall, the dying "surges".

[L0oniX]

3. The surge is working...

:evilfrown:

[Doctor_J]

4. I am sure Brian Williams will lead with this tonight

or at least he'll try to squeeze it in after he's spent 20 min on Jeremiah Wright.

[saigon68]

6. You are Right---All Wright ----All Right 24/7

Yes another evening of watching a wild man, throw his arms around, in an unintelligible rant.

I'm sure at least 10 minutes on all outlets of the MSM.

Maybe they will tell us what Wright had for breakfast too.

He's now more popular than Brittany.

[ShortnFiery]

5. Don't look THERE fellow Patriot! But be VERY AFRAID!

Instead let's continue, at great length, to hype-focus on Obama's Crazy Uncle, "Darkie" <shriek> pastor Rev. Wright?!? ... or worse yet, did ya know that there's a record number of VARMIT ATTACKS? Would you believe that these critters have been trained by Al Quaeda of Chicago? :crazy:

Shh! Do you hear it? It's a funny squeaky sound!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdiXSsFp29s


No, fellow Americans. We need to censor the M$M Whores who feed us BUNK in the form of "squirrelly distractions" that the Military Industrial Complex Funded media feeds us as *a terrorist under every bed.*

Poof! <brush off> Gone!


No! Whistle past the graveyards of our young Americans ... don't lookie here! :grr:

Hey there, Corporate M$M?!? STOP THE IRRATIONAL DISTRACTIONS AND FOCUS ON WHAT'S REAL!

[maddezmom]

7. Monthly toll now at 50. At least five soldiers have been killed in the city since Tuesday, bringing

At least five soldiers have been killed in the city since Tuesday, bringing the monthly count to at least 50 — 27 in Baghdad — in the deadliest month since September when 65 U.S. troops died.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, at least 4,062 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. military reported early Thursday that a soldier had been killed by an explosion Wednesday near a patrol in Ninevah Province.

Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were killed nationwide this month, or an average of 36 a day, according to an AP tally. That's down from March's total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per day.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AjC4gNEe528JX2Yko69410JvaA8F

[maddezmom]

8. The deaths of six U.S. soldiers since Tuesday brought the military death toll in Iraq for the month

The deaths of six U.S. soldiers since Tuesday brought the military death toll in Iraq for the month of April to 50, the highest monthly figure since September, U.S. commanders reported Wednesday.

Asked Wednesday why the toll has risen, Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, said the situation reflects the challenges of militants trying to reassert themselves. “We have said all along this will be a tough fight,” Bergner said at a news conference.

The U.S. military death toll spiked last year as the U.S. troop escalation dubbed the “surge” was unfolding. There were 104 deaths last April, 126 in May and 101 in June. Numbers began dropping when the “surge” strategy took hold and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suspended the activities of his Mehdi Army militia.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/30/in-iraq-highest-us-monthly-death-toll-since-september-3/

[Thor_MN]

9. The Surge is ... "Winter"????

[stillcool]

10. Maybe this is what

..is meant by 'bringing them home'.