BAGHDAD, Iraq – A spike in fighting with Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed eight Americans in the Baghdad area Tuesday and today, pushing the count of American deaths in the Iraq campaign to 1,003. That number includes 1,000 U.S. troops and three civilians, two working for the U.S. Army and one for the Air Force.
The tally was compiled by The Associated Press based on Pentagon records and reporting from Iraq.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blamed the spike in U.S. combat deaths on an insurgency that “is becoming more sophisticated in its efforts to destabilize the country.”
The U.S. military has not reported overall Iraqi deaths. The Iraqi Health Ministry started counting the dead only in April when heavy fighting broke out in Fallujah and Najaf. However, conservative estimates by private groups place the Iraqi toll at least 10,000.
The grim milestone of 1,000 American military deaths was surpassed after a surge in fighting, which has killed 17 U.S. service members in the past four days. A soldier was killed early today when a roadside bomb struck a convoy near Balad, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Two soldiers died in clashes Tuesday with militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Five other Americans died Tuesday in separate attacks, mostly in the Baghdad area.
West of the capital, U.S. warplanes swooped low over Fallujah on Tuesday in airstrikes after seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers were killed the day before in a car-bombing near the Sunni insurgent-controlled city.
A group linked to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – Tawhid and Jihad – posted a statement on a militant Web site claiming responsibility for the attack, describing it as “a martyr operation … that targeted American soldiers and their mercenary apostate collaborators from the Iraqi army.”
Fighting between U.S. soldiers and al-Sadr’s militiamen erupted Tuesday when U.S. officials said the cleric’s gunmen fired on Americans carrying out patrols in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Two Americans died in the fighting, U.S. officials said.
Late Tuesday, the militia announced a unilateral cease-fire but said it would fight back in self-defense. It was unclear whether the statement had any meaning since the militia routinely defends its actions as legitimate self defense.
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