U.S. casualties surge amid worsening violence

WASHINGTON - U.S. military casualties have surged in Iraq in recent weeks, with U.S. troops engaging in perilous urban sweeps to curb sectarian violence in Baghdad while facing unrelenting violence elsewhere.

At least 44 U.S. troops have been killed so far in October. At the current pace, the month would be the deadliest for U.S. forces since January 2005. After falling to 43 in July, the U.S. toll rose in August and September before spiking this month. The war’s average monthly U.S. death toll is 64.

The number of U.S. troops wounded in combat also has surged, with September’s total of more than 770 the highest since November 2004, when U.S. forces launched a ground offensive to clear insurgents from Fallujah.

Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, briefing in Baghdad on Thursday, attributed the rising casualties to insurgent violence that coincides with the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan, as well as more aggressive operations in Baghdad.

‘Worse before it gets better’
“We assume it will still get worse before it gets better. We expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks, until the end of Ramadan,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said the 15,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad are focusing their efforts in the sprawling capital on curbing death squads and others responsible for sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that the U.S. commanders believe could lead to civil war if left unchecked.

“Each time you conduct operations like that, you put your soldiers at much greater risk,” Caldwell said.

Army Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, said on Wednesday the level of violence over the past few weeks has been the highest of the war. There are 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Mike Derer / AP file U.S. Marines carry the casket of Lance Cpl. Christopher Cosgrove III from Saint Vincent Martyr Church after funeral services in Madison, N.J., on Wednesday.

There have been 2,757 U.S. military deaths since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The U.S. death rate and overall toll still remain far lower than in the Vietnam War, when 58,000 U.S. troops were killed.

The Pentagon said 20,895 U.S. troops have been wounded in combat, many maimed by grievous blast wounds from insurgent roadside bombs, the leading cause of American casualties. At least 6,000 others have suffered wounds in accidents and other noncombat situations.

Brookings Institution analyst Michael O’Hanlon said there has been a gradual increase in overall violence since the first year of the war as the insurgency grew in strength and sophistication.

But spikes in violence, he said, have been driven primarily by U.S. actions like the current operation in Baghdad. On the current surge, O’Hanlon said: “We’re not winning and we may even be starting to lose. That’s what it should make you conclude.”

Iraqis killed in sectarian attacks
At least 33 people were killed Thursday in attacks, including 11 in an assault on a new Sunni-Arab television station in Baghdad, while authorities found the mutilated bodies of more likely victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.

The raid on the southeastern Baghdad offices of Iraq's Shaabiya satellite station came at around 7 a.m. (12 a.m. ET), police Maj. Mahir Hamad said.

An unknown number of gunmen pulled up at the station in seven cars, stormed quickly into the offices and opened fire, then fled, station executive director Hassan Kamil told Associated Press Television News.

Kamil said 11 people had been killed, including technicians, two guards and the head of the station's board of directors.

"A group of armed men in seven cars stormed into the building and killed a group of our colleagues, including the head of the board of directors Abdel-Raheem Nasrallah," he said.

The station moved into the building in July and has not yet gone on the air, Kamil said.

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