Pentagon: 300 Iraqi Troops Killed in April

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

April was the deadliest month of the year for U.S. service members in Iraq, but it was an even grimmer month for Iraqi security forces, a high-ranking Pentagon official said this afternoon.

"I'd like to also express my condolences to the Iraqi people," said Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy operations director for the Joints Chiefs of Staff. "The Iraqis sustained over 300 Iraqi security force losses in the month of April."

"April was a tough month in Iraq," Wiggins added.

The spike in military deaths is a reminder that "coalition and Iraqi security forces are the primary target for attacks," Wiggins said at a briefing for Pentagon reporters. "This is a consistent trend. The coalition is the target for every two out of three attacks."

<snip>

Wiggins said he did not have data on the number of Iraqi civilians killed in April. But in March, a total of 2,762 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, down 4 percent from the previous month, when 2,864 were killed.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301561.html?nav=rss_world/mideast/iraq

[keopeli]

1. If the Pentagon says 300, the real number must be huge. We can't build a force if they keep dying!

[lonestarnot]

2. 5626 numbers in one damn month.

:sarcasm:

[stillcool]

3. boggles the mind..

Iraq faces a growing humanitarian emergency. As of April 2007, the United Nations estimated that up to 8 million people were vulnerable and in need of immediate assistance. <78> Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been forced to flee from their homes and hundreds of thousands more are casualties of the violence through death and injury. Education has broken down. <79> Unemployment has reached about 60% <80> and the annual inflation rate peaked at about 70% in July 2006 . <81> An estimated 54% of the Iraqi population lives below the poverty line on less than a dollar a day, among which 15% live in extreme poverty. <82> The public health system is weak and losing capacity. <83> Electricity is in short supply. <84> Only 32% of Iraqis have access to clean drinking water . <85> The Public Distribution System food ration has stopped functioning in certain areas of the country, leaving 4 million Iraqis acutely vulnerable due to food insecurity. <86> Severe malnutrition doubled between 2003 and 2005. <87> Iraq 's humanitarian emergency has reached a crisis level that compares with some of the world's most urgent calamities.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/occupation/report/humanitarian.htm