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| Iraq |
| IED main killer of US forces |
| 2006-12-26 |
| BAGHDAD (AFP) - Young, white and killed by a roadside bomb. This is the portrait of a typical American casualty in Iraq, the number of which now exceeds the civilian dead of September 11. When the US-led invasion of Iraq took place in March, 2003, it was inextricably linked in American minds with the terror attack by Al-Qaeda hijackers that killed 2,973 people. The biggest terror for US troops now is the ubiquitous "improvised explosive device," a homemade bomb that American troops call an "IED." According to a recent Pentagon report, some 44 percent of US casualties have come from these explosives, which range in complexity from a small mortar round detonated by a trip wire to sophisticated charges that can punch through the thickest armor. Small arms fire, including that from the dreaded snipers that have increasingly made an appearance in the past year, account for just under 20 percent of the US casualties. About a fifth of the US deaths in Iraq, 568 people, had nothing to do with combat at all, with 65 percent dying in accidents, particularly those involving helicopters. Another 93 servicemen took their own lives. While army soldiers make up the vast majority of the dead -- 68 percent with 1,961 soldiers -- the marines are making the final sacrifice well out of proportion to their numbers in the field. Though they make up less than 15 percent of the US forces in Iraq, they comprise almost 30 percent of the dead, pointing up the extreme ferocity of the combat in Anbar, west of Baghad, which they struggle to control. With less than two million inhabitants, the largely desert province holds only a fraction of Iraq's population, but more US servicemen have died there than any other region. The province, which has claimed 35 percent of US deaths, contains the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi as well as a string of towns on the Euphrates river valley that are insurgency strongholds. Baghdad comes next as the deadliest spot for Americans in the country with 764 deaths, a quarter of the total, while only 292 have died in the Sunni heartland province of Salaheddin, birthplace of Saddam Hussein. In all of Iraq's 18 provinces, the safest places for Americans are the Kurdish provinces of Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, where not a single US soldier has died. Anbar province was also centre stage during the deadliest month for US troops, which happened in November 2004 in which 137 US combatants fell, many of them due to the US siege and recapture of Fallujah. An earlier attempt to take the town in April 2004, coupled with pitched battles between US soldiers and the Mahdi militia in Najaf, resulted in the second highest monthly death toll of 135. The fewest US soldiers died in March 2006 when only 31 perished, perhaps because in the aftermath of the February 22 destruction of the revered golden domed Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraqis were too busy killing each other. Monthly death tolls have risen towards the end of 2006 and in October over 100 servicemen died, a number on track to be equaled in December. The US army is a young army, judging by its dead, with more than half the casualties under the age of 25 and a third of them, under the age of 22. Contrary to conventional wisdom, ethnic minorities did not do a disproportionate share of the dying -- white soldiers do most of it. Just under 10 percent of the casualties are black, who make up around 13 percent of the US population, while 11 percent of the dead are Latinos, who make up 14 percent of Americans. Some 74 percent of US servicemen who have lost their lives are non-Latino whites, who make up only 67.4 percent of the US population, according to the census bureau. Some 60 women soldiers have died in Iraq, a high number considering they are banned from many frontline combat units. Most women were killed driving in convoys, carrying out police duties, in attacks on bases or at checkpoints. Female soldiers also often accompany the infantry on raids as they are needed to search Iraqi women. On December 6, a new grim milestone was passed when marine Major Megan McClung became the highest ranking female officer to be killed in the war. Aside from her gender, her death conformed to the statistical average for casualties. She was killed by a roadside bomb that destroyed the armored humvee she was riding in through downtown Ramadi. The 34-year-old public affairs officer for the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division was escorting a journalist, who was unharmed. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
#5 Lemme think....What Frank said |
| Posted by: 6 2006-12-26 17:34 |
| #4 I like it, Brett. IED means immediate, painful interrogation...and a swift execution. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-12-26 17:16 |
| #3 Both the IED and sniper problems, I think, are cyclical. As experienced troops rotate out, the toll goes up, and then down as experience grows. UAV's and counter sniper teams, used properly, will take care of most of these before any of our guys or gals get killed. Unfortunately, it goes against the grain for many commanders to recon by air and snipe at your enemies. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-12-26 16:55 |
| #2 New RoE: anyone caught with any type of IED or components should be immediately shot as a war criminal. Possess explosives/shells? Dead Possess vests? Dead Possess wiring/fuses? Dead Possess more than one electric controller? Dead Publicize it, do it. US casualties will drop mightily. |
| Posted by: Brett 2006-12-26 16:43 |
| #1 F*ck off, Rangel |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-12-26 16:09 |