Iraq War Marks First Month With No U.S. Military Deaths [View All]

[WonderGrunion]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/world/middleeast/01iraq.html

BAGHDAD — Under increased pressure from the United States, an Iraqi crackdown on Iranian-backed Shiite militias has helped produce a previously elusive goal: For the first time since the American invasion of Iraq, an entire month has passed without a single United States service member dying.
At War

The milestone is particularly remarkable because it comes after 14 troops were killed in July, making it the most deadly month for the Americans in three years, and it has occurred amid a frightening campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations from Sunni insurgents that killed hundreds of Iraqis, resurrecting the specter of the worst days of sectarian fighting.

“If you had thought about a month without a death back during the surge in 2007, it would have been pretty hard to imagine because we were losing soldiers every day, dozens a week,” said Col. Douglas Crissman, who is in charge of American forces in four provinces of southern Iraq and oversaw a battalion in Anbar Province during the troop increase. “I think this shows how far the Iraqi security forces have come.”

None of the roughly 48,000 troops in Iraq were killed in August, a remarkable if fragile achievement, officials said. In all, 4,465 American soldiers have died here since the United States invasion in 2003, according to Defense Department figures.

It appears combat operations really are over in Iraq.