May a deadly month for U.S. troops

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hostile fire has killed more U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq in May than during each of the three previous months.

If the trend continues, May will be one of the deadliest months for U.S. troops during the past year.

So far, insurgents have killed 54 U.S. troops in May, including four yesterday and 14 in the past three days.

The casualty figures appear to end a trend that started soon after national elections in January, when insurgents seemed to shift from targeting U.S. forces to attacking the nascent Iraqi army and police.

With sectarian violence increasing between the nation's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, the figures raise the question of whether Iraq is turning into two battlefields: one of insurgents versus the U.S. military and another of Iraqi sects fighting each other.

In the northern city of Tal Afar, there were reports that militants were in control and that Shiites and Sunnis were fighting in the streets, a day after two car bombs killed at least 20 people.

Police Capt. Ahmed Hashem Taki said Tal Afar was experiencing "civil war." Journalists were blocked from entering the city of 200,000.

Today, meanwhile, about 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and soldiers encircled Haditha, in Anbar province, killing at least three insurgents after launching the second major operation in the western region in less than a month, an official said.

The offensives are aimed at uprooting insurgents who have killed more than 620 people, including 58 U.S. troops, since April 28, when insurgents launched a bloody campaign after Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new Shiite-dominated government. The Associated Press count is based on reports from police, hospital and military officials.

Helicopters swept down near palm-tree groves, dropping off Marines who blocked off one side of Haditha, while other troops on foot and in armored vehicles established checkpoints and began moving toward the center of the city of 90,000, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The assault, Operation New Market, focused on the city, where the U.S. military says insurgents have been using increasingly sophisticated tactics.

According to initial reports, three insurgents were killed during gunbattles that began after U.S. forces entered the city, Marine Capt. Christopher Toland told an Associated Press reporter embedded with U.S. forces. Two Marines were wounded and evacuated, Toland said.

"A lot of this is like bird hunting. You rustle it up and see what comes up," said Marine Col. Stephen Davis, commander of the operation.

Yesterday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in central Baghdad when a car bomb exploded next to their convoy. A U.S. soldier sitting in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle was then killed in a drive-by shooting later.

Four soldiers were killed Monday after they were attacked in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, the military said. They were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

A Marine was killed during an indirect fire attack Monday on a U.S. base in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.

As of yesterday, at least 1,643 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

"There is going to be a wave of violence [targeting U.S. forces] as long as there is occupation," said Amer Hassan Fayadh, a Baghdad University political-science professor. At the same time, "when the regime fell, the Iraq state collapsed, too. The replacements for the police were [sectarian] militias."

Those militias, and the groups behind them, have become entangled in a tit-for-tat killing of religious and political leaders as the minority Sunni population, which didn't vote in large numbers during national elections, struggles to find its footing in a nation increasingly dominated by the majority Shiite sect.

With May's figures, though, it's clear that insurgents continue to target U.S. troops, even while fighting rages among Iraqis.

In the months after the elections, the number of insurgent attacks per day plummeted, averaging between the low-30s and mid-40s. They spiked back up this month, hitting an average of about 70 a day before starting to dip during the past couple days.

An earlier offensive this month in Anbar province contributed to the U.S. death count. Marines encountered heavy resistance in areas near the Syrian border. Nine Marines were killed and 40 were wounded; at least 125 insurgents were reported killed.

U.S. military officials have pointed to less-effective roadside and car bombs as proof that a series of captures of top insurgent leaders had weakened the insurgency.

But 39 of the 54 soldiers and Marines killed this month died as the result of those devices.

Insurgents are also using more sophisticated tactics.

During an unsuccessful raid on an Iraqi police station south of Baghdad on Saturday, for example, soldiers responded to a tip about a possible car bomb. As they arrived at the station, the bomb exploded, and a gunbattle with insurgents followed. Investigators also found four unexploded 160-mm artillery rounds rigged with timers, according to a military release.

"There has been at least an appearance of things being more sophisticated, more coordinated," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a top military spokesman in Baghdad.

The U.S. military revealed yesterday that a man alleged to be a top insurgent leader in Ramadi had been captured the day before.

Muhammed Hamadi, military officials said, commanded several insurgent cells responsible for attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces and was instrumental in a series of kidnappings meant to fund operations. He may be linked to Jordanian terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The military also announced the capture of Mullah Kamel al-Aswadi, the most-wanted insurgent in north-central Iraq. Caught by Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint, al-Aswadi is also suspected of having ties with al-Zarqawi and of funding and training insurgents across the region.

A militant Islamic Web site also revealed, with few details, that al-Zarqawi may have been injured.

Information on the killings of U.S. soldiers, the new offensive and the Tal Afar fighting was from The Associated Press.