GI Special 4J6: Remote Control - October 6, 2006

Thomas F. Barton

U.S. Losses Mount In Battle Of Baghdad:

"We Have Lost 18 American Service Members In About The Last 96 Hours"

Rumsfeld Gets Another Kill

For the troops of the 172nd, who were deployed to Baghdad two months ago after seeing their year-long tour of duty in Iraq abruptly extended just days before they were due to return home, Rojas' death was a cruel blow.

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GI Special 4J5: SecDef PCS USDB Ft. Leavenworth - October 5, 2006

Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war.

The latest losses -- four soldiers who were killed at 9 a.m. Wednesday by small-arms fire -- are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against U.S. forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday, the military said.
Independent databases showed the three-day toll for American troops to be the highest in Baghdad so far.

"When you go into bad neighborhoods, you'll have more attacks," said Lt. Col. James A. Gavrilis, a Special Forces officer and expert on the Iraqi insurgency. "If we have more people in one area, there will be an opportunity." He said enemy fighters "are reacting to an opportunity to attack."

. Seventy-four soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq in September, representing the highest monthly toll since April, when 76 died, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

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Bloody fight over Kirkuk's future

Mohammed A Salih

The security situation in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk has further deteriorated over the past few weeks after the Iraqi government formed a committee assigned to "normalize the situation". The creation of that committee under a constitutional provision has led to a rise in ethnic tensions among Kirkuk's Kurdish, Arab and Turkoman populations. Violence has risen with the tensions. September was one of the bloodiest months for Kirkuk, with an unprecedented number of attacks. For many, the message behind the attacks is to stop implementation of Article 140 of Iraq's constitution, and to inflame sectarian strife in the city...

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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2006

Today in Iraq

...Baghdad police collected 35 corpses over a period of 24 hours, they have said, mostly in the Sunni western half of the city. The bodies -- which were found bwteen 6.00 am (0300 GMT) Thursday and 6.00 am Friday -- bore the tell tale markings of Baghdad's grim sectarian war with signs of torture and bullet wounds to the head. In a predominantly Shiite part of eastern Baghdad, police found the bodies of five men in their 30s, apparently victims of sectarian death squads. All five had been shot, had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture, police Maj. Maher Mousa said. Two US soldiers died from combat wounds they received on October 4 while operating in Anbar province...

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