Surge in U.S. Deaths in Iraq Draws Concern
Published May 24. 2005 3:55PM
By PAUL GARWOODAssociated Press Writer

The surge in deaths of U.S. soldiers in recent weeks has raised concern that insurgents may again be focusing their sights on American forces.

Eighteen U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq during the past week - 14 in the past three days alone. The deaths come at a time when American troops are trying to hand more responsibility to Iraq's fledgling security forces, part of the U.S. strategy to eventually leave Iraq.

While the killings paint a worrying picture, U.S. soldiers and analysts say they probably don't represent a ramping up of violence against American forces in the battlefields of Baghdad and beyond.

"The cycle goes up and down and unfortunately it turns out to be the location of where you are or a matter of timing," U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said."

Attacks against coalition forces have never stopped. We are averaging about 70 attacks against us per day," he added. "It is always a concern when these types of events happen, but it is not unusual to see.

"The most recent deaths include three soldiers killed Tuesday when a car bomb tore apart a Humvee in Baghdad. Another was slain in a drive-by shooting while sitting in the back of a parked Bradley fighting vehicle in the capital.

Five U.S. servicemen were killed a day earlier in attacks in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, and Ramadi, 70 miles west of the capital. On Sunday, a series of explosions killed four soldiers in northern Iraq, while an American soldier died in a vehicle accident in the same part of the country.

In addition, every day from May 17 to May 20 a U.S. service member has died.

During their two-year occupation of Iraq, more than 1,640 U.S. soldiers have died, many killed in multiple blasts caused by suicide attackers, car bombs or roadside explosions.

Shiite Muslim fighters allied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr waged intense battles against American troops in Baghdad and the southern city of Najaf last year.

And Sunni extremists, who have used bombings, ambushes and kidnappings to deadly effect, have shown no signs of letting up in their campaign to push coalition forces out of Iraq and topple the country's U.S.-backed, Shiite-dominated government.

A possible factor behind the continued vulnerability of U.S. troops is the poor state of preparedness of Iraq's own security forces.

Gen. John Abizaid, the American military commander in the Persian Gulf region, said last week in Washington that Iraq's police force has not developed as quickly as U.S. generals had hoped, raising questions about how soon American forces could begin returning home.

Edward B. Atkeson, a senior fellow at the Rand Institute of Land Warfare, believes it is the inability of U.S. authorities to produce an Iraqi security force capable of taking over complete control of Iraq that continues to place American troops in the firing line.

"Whenever you take a larger part in the security operations you have to be prepared to take a larger part of the casualties," Atkeson, a former U.S. military intelligence chief in Europe, said from Alexandria, Va.

Charles Heyman, a senior defense analyst with Jane's Consultancy Group in Britain, said the rate of attacks against American forces are the same as any time during the conflict - but the key difference is the increasing capabilities of the insurgents.

"We would have hoped that the insurgency would have decreased in line with the ability of the Iraqi security forces to hold the ring and become more capable," Heyman said. "But it doesn't appear to be panning out that way with the insurgents increasing in their abilities to kill, attack and strike when and where they want."

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050524/API/505240946&cachetime=5