New mark: 43 days between Iraq casualties

[unhappycamper]

New mark: 43 days between Iraq casualties
By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Friday Jan 8, 2010 7:32:04 EST

The combat death of a U.S. soldier Tuesday in Iraq was the first in 43 days, the longest stretch since the war began.

The soldier’s death comes as U.S. forces begin to intensify efforts to withdraw from Iraq. President Barack Obama has said the combat mission in Iraq will cease for U.S. troops at the end of 2010, and all U.S. forces will be withdrawn by the end of 2011. There are 112,000 U.S. service members there now.

Insurgent attacks and U.S. combat fatalities have fallen since mid-2007 after Army Gen. David Petraeus launched a counterinsurgency strategy backed by tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops.

Many former militants also turned against militants, opting to take payments to work as security guards on behalf of U.S. forces and the Iraqi government. In mid-2007, there were more than 200 insurgent attacks a day in Iraq, and there are now fewer than 15, Petraeus said earlier this week.

Spc. David A. Croft Jr., 22, of Plant City, Fla., died Tuesday in Baghdad when his unit was attacked with a makeshift bomb and small-arms fire. Roadside bombs are the No. 1 cause of U.S. troop deaths.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/01/gns_iraq_casualties_010810/


unhappycamper comment: :woohoo: Only three hundred twenty two American soldiers died in Afghanistan during the same period.