US casualties surge in Iraq, but public impact is muffled [View All]

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041130/pl_afp/us_iraq_casualties&cid=1521&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - American casualties in Iraq (news - web sites) surged in November as US forces pressed a bid to pacify the country's Sunni heartland but the high toll appears to have had little impact on public support for the war, analysts said.


The killing of a soldier in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad late Monday raised the US death toll for the month to 134, one less than the record set in April when US forces faced uprisings in Fallujah and cities in southern Iraq.


The battle for Fallujah, where US and Iraqi forces fought house-to-house against insurgents entrenched in the city since April, claimed more than a third of the US casualties in November -- at least 55 soldiers and marines between November 8 and November 20.


Nearly as many US troops were killed in November as during the two months of "major combat operations" that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

more