Associated Press
September 8, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq —
U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed the 1,000 milestone Tuesday,
with more than 800 of them during the stubborn insurgency that flared after the
Americans brought down Saddam Hussein and President Bush declared major combat
over.
A spike in fighting with Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed seven
Americans in the Baghdad area on Tuesday, pushing the count to 1,002. That
number includes 999 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 AP reporting from Iraq.
Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld cited progress on multiple fronts in the Bush
administration's global war on terrorism and said U.S. enemies should not
underestimate the willingness of the American people and its coalition allies to
suffer casualties in Iraq and elsewhere.
"The progress has prompted a
backlash, in effect, from those who hope that at some point we might conclude
that the pain and t he cost of this fight isn't worth it," Rumsfeld told a
Pentagon news conference. "Well, our enemies have underestimated our country,
our coalition. They have failed to understand the character of our people. And
they certainly misread our commander in chief."
The Bush administration
has long linked the Iraq conflict to the war on terrorism. The Sept. 11
Commission, however, concluded that Iraq and al-Qaida did not have a
"collaborative relationship" before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington,
and some have questioned to what extent foreign terror groups are involved in
the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq.
Democratic presidential candidate
Sen. John Kerry issued a statement saying the United States joined the friends
and families of those who died in mourning their loss.
"Today marks a
tragic milestone in the war in Iraq. More than one thousand of Americas sons
and daughters have made the ultimate sacrifice. Our nation honors their service
and joins with their families and loved on es in mourning their loss," Kerry
said.
"We must never forget the price they have paid. And we must meet
our sacred obligation to all our troops to do all we can to make the right
decisions in Iraq so that we can bring them home as soon as possible."
The 1,002 figure includes deaths from hostile and non-hostile causes
since the United States launched the Iraq campaign in March 2003 to topple
Saddam's regime. The vast majority of U.S. deaths -- all but 138 -- came after
Bush's May 1, 2003 declaration of an end to major combat operations. "Mission
Accomplished," read a banner on an aircraft carrier where Bush made the
announcement.
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 at least 10,000 -- or 10 times the number
of U.S. military deaths.
"It is difficult to establish the rig ht
number of casualties," said Amnesty International's Middle East spokeswoman,
Nicole Choueiry. She added that "it was the job of the occupation power to keep
track of the numbers but the Americans failed to do so."
The grim
milestone of 1,000 American military deaths was surpassed after a surge in
fighting, which has killed 16 U.S. service members in the past two days. 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. Seven Marines were killed Monday in a suicide car bombing
north of Fallujah. Two soldiers were killed in a mortar attack Sunday.
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 st atement 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.
A senior Iraqi Health Ministry
official, Saad al-Amili, said 35 Iraqis were killed and 203 wounded in the Sadr
City clashes. An al-Sadr spokesman, Sheik Raed al-Kadhimi, blamed "intrusive"
American patrolling for provoking the fighting.
"Our fighters have no
choice but to return fire and to face the U.S. forces and helicopters pounding
our houses," al-Kadhimi said in a statement.
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 a ny meaning since the militia
routinely defends its actions as legitimate self defense.
U.S. Army
Capt. Brian O'Malley said he was unaware of the cease-fire offer but that the
area was quiet in the early evening. "We only fire when we are fired at, but we
will not stop our patrols or withdraw from our positions," he said.
At
the Pentagon, 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."
"We are
aggressively seeking and capturing those insurgents who are not willing to do so
themselves, but are encouraging people to commit suicide attacks," Myers told
reporters Tuesday. "Make no mistake, we will continue to pursue those who seek
to disrupt progress in Iraq."
During the Sadr City fighting, U.S.
warplanes flew over the sprawling neighborhood -- home to some 2 million people.
American tanks, their turrets spinning, deployed in key interse ctions.
Ambulances with sirens wailing rushed the wounded to hospitals as plumes of
heavy, black smoke rose over the mainly Shiite neighborhood.
U.S.
forces appeared to be carrying out most -- if not all -- of the fighting. No
Iraqi security forces were seen during the clashes, though U.S. spokesmen
talked of "multinational forces" involved in the operations, a term that
sometimes includes Iraqi troops.
Small groups of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi
Army fighters pounded on the asphalt with hammers to plant mines and explosives
in the streets. Fighters in their teens and early 20s trotted toward the
clashes -- rocket-propelled grenades in hand -- as children scampered behind
them.
Other militiamen, rifles in hand, gathered on street corners.
Fighters using rocks and tires blocked roads leading to the area. By afternoon,
most stores in the neighborhood were shuttered.
Elsewhere, a bomb
exploded Tuesday near the convoy of the governor of the Baghdad region, killing
two people. Gov. Ali al-Ha idri escaped injury, Interior Ministry spokesman
Col. Adnan Abdel Rahman said.
In another part of the capital, armed
men in olive green uniforms stormed the office of an Italian aid group and
seized two Italian women and two Iraqis. It was only the second known
kidnapping of foreign women since a wave of hostage-takings began this year. A
female Japanese aid worker was captured in Fallujah in April but was released a
week later.