Iraq terror grew in run-up to referendum (30 GIs injured per day)

[Barrett808]

Iraq terror grew in run-up to referendum
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- As anticipated, insurgent attacks continued at a high level in Iraq in the two weeks before Saturday's referendum vote. U.S. and allied Iraqi troop fatalities were, fortunately, relatively low.

But the number of U.S. troops wounded in action continued at a grimly high level, and the percentage of U.S. troop fatalities inflicted by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, was higher than ever for September and October so far -- an ominous indicator that the technical expertise of the insurgents is steadily advancing.

Up to and including February 2005, IEDs never accounted for more than 43.1 percent of U.S. troops killed per month in Iraq. Since June, IEDs have never accounted for less than 46.2 percent of U.S. military fatalities per month. The percentage of U.S. troops killed by them in September according to figures compiled by the Iraq Index Project (IIP) of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. was 75.5 percent and so far this month up to Oct. 16 it has been 62.8 percent.

The death toll of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Sunday, Oct. 16, the day after the referendum vote, since the start of hostilities in March 2003, was 1,962, a rise of 17 U.S. soldiers killed in the previous 14 days, according to figures from the Department of Defense and the IIP. U.S. soldiers were, therefore, dying in Iraq at a rate of less than 1.25 per day, less than half the rate of the previous eight-day period. That was the lowest rate of fatal casualties suffered since the second week of September.

The number of U.S. troops wounded in action from the beginning of hostilities on March 19, 2003, through Sunday, Oct. 16, was 15,063, the IIP said. That was an increase of 422 in 14 days or an average rate of just over 30 injured, probably about one half of them with incapacitating injuries, a day.

(much more)

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051018-095722-2120r

Sieff has been doing some excellent reporting for UPI.