Two more U.S. troops die in Iraq, worst month since Sept
Pastor Dale Morgan
Two more U.S. troops die in Iraq, worst month since Sept*
Reuters
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; 3:00 AM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad, the U.S.
military said on Wednesday, taking the American troop death toll in Iraq
for April to 46.
That makes April the deadliest month since September, when 65 U.S.
soldiers died in Iraq, according to figures compiled by icasualties.org,
an independent Web site that tracks military deaths.
In a statement, the U.S. military said gunmen killed one soldier in
northwestern Baghdad on Tuesday. The second soldier was killed in a
roadside bomb attack on his vehicle, also in the northwestern part of
the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.
Around half the U.S. troop deaths in Iraq this month have been in
Baghdad, including several killed by rocket and mortar fire from the
eastern Baghdad stronghold of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting battles against Shi'ite gunmen
in and around the Sadr City bastion for weeks.
American forces said they killed 34 militiamen in Sadr City on Tuesday
in a series of clashes including one street battle that raged for four
hours.
While April was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since September, the
casualty toll is well down on the same month a year ago, when 104 U.S.
soldiers died in Iraq.
That was when U.S. forces were building up in Baghdad and pushing deeper
into parts of the capital controlled by Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants.
Al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and regrouped in
provinces north of the city.
(Reporting by Dean Yates, Editing by Jon Boyle)