WORLD / Middle East
US death toll in Iraq passes 3,500
(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-08 09:00
BAGHDAD - The four-year US military death toll in Iraq passed 3,500 after
a soldier was reported killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. A British
soldier was also shot to death Thursday in southern Iraq, as Western
forces find themselves increasingly vulnerable under a new strategy to
take the fight to the enemy.
In this photo released by the US Air Force, Honor Guard members from the
407th Expeditionary Group in Ali Air Base, Iraq, perform a flag folding
ceremony during a Fallen Airmen Ceremony in remembrance of Staff Sgt John
Self at Ali Air Base on Monday May 28, 2007. [AP]
The British ambassador to Iraq, meanwhile, signaled his government was
ready to talk to those behind the abduction of five Britons in Baghdad
last month. Iraqi officials have said they believe the Britons were taken
by the Mahdi Army militia, which is largely loyal to the radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
In a rare televised interview, al-Sadr blamed the United States for
Iraq's woes, often referring to it as "the occupier" and accusing it of
being behind the sectarian violence, the growing schism between Iraq's
majority Shiites and once-dominant Sunni Arabs and economic hardships.
"We are now facing a brutal Western assault against Islam," he said,
draped in his traditional black robe and turban. "This agenda must be
countered with a cultural resistance," he said.
The mounting US casualties, most by makeshift bombs placed in potholes on
roads or in fields where troops conduct foot patrols, come as American
troops work with Iraqi forces on the streets and in remote outposts as
part of a joint crackdown on sectarian violence.
A US soldier was killed and two others were wounded Wednesday when a
roadside bomb exploded during combat operations in a southwestern section
of Baghdad, the military said Thursday. At least 3,501 US service-members
have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to an
Associated Press count.
They include at least 23 American deaths during the first six days of
June - an average of almost four per day, a similar pace to that in May.
American troops deaths reached 127 in May, making it the third-deadliest
month since the war started in March 2003. The average is nearly double
the roughly two a day killed in June 2006.
A British soldier also was shot to death and three others were wounded
Thursday while on patrol in southern Iraq, according to Britain's
Ministry of Defense, pushing to at least 150 the number of deaths
reported by the British military.
Separately, the British ambassador to Iraq, Dominic Asquith, appealed to
the kidnappers of five Britons to release them or open negotiations.
The five - four security guards and a consultant - were abducted from the
Iraqi Finance Ministry on May 29 by some 40 heavily armed men who then
rode off with them in the direction of the sprawling Shiite district of
Sadr City.
Iraqi officials say the Mahdi Army may have grabbed the men in
retaliation for the killing by British forces of the militia's commander
in the southern city of Basra.
"I ask those holding them to release them so they may return to their
families," Asquith said. Then, in a clear offer to consider demands, he
added, "We have people here in Iraq who are ready to listen to any person
about this incident, or any person who may be holding these men and who
may wish to communicate."
The Mahdi Army, which fought US forces in 2004, has been blamed for many
of the sectarian attacks in Iraq. The US accuses Iran of fueling the
violence by providing weapons and training fighters.
On Thursday, al-Sadr said he maintains "friendship and good relations"
with Iran but rejects any interference by Tehran in Iraq's affairs.
"I must maintain friendship and good relations with Iran but nothing
else," he said.
The anti-American cleric dodged a question about his disappearance from
public view during which he was believed to have been in Iran.
The interview on Iraqi state television was believed to be al-Sadr's
first since he re-emerged in public nearly two weeks ago. The program,
which aired Thursday, was taped Sunday at his office in the holy city of
Najaf, according to his aides. Al-Sadr had dropped out of sight at the
start of a US-Iraqi security crackdown in February.
Despite the crackdown, bombings, shootings, mortar attacks and
execution-style killings left at least 63 Iraqis dead nationwide
Thursday. They included 32 unidentified men who were handcuffed,
blindfolded and shot to death in Baghdad - the apparent victims of
so-called sectarian death squads usually run by Shiite militias like the
Mahdi Army.
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