Heavy Fighting In Sadr City Fallujah

Heavy Fighting in Sadr City, Fallujah

US Military Deaths Pass 1000

Jeff Gray of The Toronto Globe and Mail reports

The U.S. military death toll in Iraq passed 1,000 yesterday, a statistic that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called a “tragic milestone” and that some analysts said could play an important role in the race for the White House.

The tally pales in comparison to the number of Iraqis killed (estimated at between 12,000 and 14,000) and to the U.S. body count at the height of hostilities in Vietnam. But it is three times the number of American dead from the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

By last night, 998 U.S. troops and three civilians working for the U.S. military had been killed in the war, for a total of 1,001.

The tally was compiled by the Associated Press from Pentagon and family records plus reports from journalists in Iraq.

About 7,000 other Americans have been wounded.

I would wager that very few American newspapers mention the estimate of 12,000 Iraqis dead in the war so far when they report the number of US military dead. (Note that the 12000 figure refers solely to civilian combat deaths and does not include Iraqi soldiers killed).

American television news very seldom shows wounded Iraqis in the hospital after an American strike, something that is a staple of Arab satellite t.v. Indeed, the US public is not being given a full view of the fighting in Iraq. I just don’t see that many mentions of the US bombing Iraqi cities, and don’t remember seeing much footage of this bombing or its aftermath. For the US to bomb inhabited city quarters in a country that it occupies strikes me as problematic. For all the talk of precision hits, civilians are inevitably harmed.

Heavy fighting between US forces and the Mahdi Army militia left 40 dead and 270 wounded in East Baghdad.

US forces bombed Fallujah from the air on Tuesday and Wednesday. , according to AP. Al-Jazeerah showed footage of the aftermath of the battle at Fallujah.