Los Angeles Times
May 7, 2007
BAGHDAD —
A U.S. general commanding troops in Iraq warned today that American casualties will increase as a security plan aimed at quelling violence continues, a prediction that followed the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, made his comments on the same day that the U.S. military announced the deaths of three more troops: two in Al Anbar province west of Baghdad and one in northern Iraq. The deaths brought to 3,368 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, according to the website www.icasualties.org.
Already this month, at least six U.S. troops have died. Last month brought 104 U.S. deaths. That was the highest monthly toll among Americans since December, when 112 died, and marked only the fourth time since the beginning of 2005 that more than 100 U.S. troops have died in a single month.
The trend will continue as forces dig in against insurgents under the security plan, which began Feb. 13, said Lynch. The general as lost 13 soldiers since taking command of a swath of territory south of Baghdad in March.
"There are going to be increased casualties during this surge, because we are taking the fight to the enemy," Lynch said. In particular, he said, numbers will go up over the next three months as the final U.S. troops arrive to enforce the plan.
Four of the five brigades for the troop buildup ordered by President Bush in January are on the ground. The fifth is due in Iraq next month and will put 28,000 additional American forces in Baghdad and Al Anbar province, where the security plan is focused.
Today's violence showed the plan's limitations in stopping violence. At least 20 Iraqis died when a car bomb exploded in a popular market in Bayaa, in southern Baghdad. At least 80 people were injured.
Near Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb went off inside another market and killed one person.
In northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a police officer, and another policeman died in a drive-by shooting in southwestern Baghdad. Iraqi police have increasingly been targeted by insurgents who view them as collaborators with the U.S.-backed government.
A car bomb blew up near a government ministry building in the volatile Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad. The blast, which occurred as employees poured out of the building at the end of the work day, killed two people.
The U.S. military said it had found a torture room and more than 150 mortar rounds, ammunition and bomb-making equipment during an early morning raid in the Shiite Muslim stronghold of Sadr City in the capital.
"They found a room that clearly had bloodstains in it. It had handcuffs in it," said Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a military spokesman. Caldwell said the raid occurred as part of an attempt to arrest a "known terrorist" tied to Shiite extremist groups.
The amount of munitions in the house was so immense that U.S. troops detonated them inside the building, after clearing people out of nearby dwellings, said Caldwell.
Local residents said at least two civilians were killed when U.S. helicopters bombed houses in the area.
Caldwell said troops came under gunfire and grenade attack while conducting the raid, which lasted from about 1:30 to 6 a.m. The suspect was not captured, but a separate military statement said eight to 10 "armed individuals" were killed in exchanges of gunfire with U.S. forces.
susman@latimes.com
Correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.