U.S. bombs dropped at twice '06 rate

BAGHDAD — Four years into the war that opened with "shock and awe," U.S. warplanes have stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago.

The airpower escalation parallels a nearly four-month security crackdown that is bringing 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Baghdad and its surroundings, a campaign aimed at restoring order to an area riven by sectarian violence.

It also reflects increased availability of planes from U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and appears to be accompanied by a rise in Iraqi civilian casualties.

In the first 4 ½ months of 2007, U.S. aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, surpassing the 229 expended in 2006, according to U.S. Air Force figures.

"Air operations over Iraq have ratcheted up significantly, in the number of sorties, the number of hours [in the air]," said Col. Joe Guastella, Air Force operations chief for the region. "It has a lot to do with increased pressure on the enemy by MNC-I" — the Multinational Corps-Iraq — "combined with more carriers."

The Air Force report did not break down where bombings have been stepped up. But U.S.-led forces also are locked in new fronts in such places as Diyala, a province northeast of the capital.

A second U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on station since February in the Persian Gulf has added some 80 warplanes to the U.S. air arsenal in the region.

At the same time, the number of civilian Iraqi casualties from U.S. airstrikes appears to have risen sharply, according to Iraq Body Count, a London anti-war research group that compiles news reports on Iraqi war deaths.

The rate of such reported civilian deaths appeared to climb steadily through 2006, the group reports, averaging a few a month in early 2006, hitting about 40 a month by year's end and averaging more than 50 a month this year.

Those are maximum tolls based on news reports and include those killed by Army helicopter fire and warplanes, Iraq Body Count's John Sloboda said. The count is regarded as conservative, because it doesn't include deaths the international media missed.

The U.S. military says it doesn't track civilian casualties.

The number of Air Force and Navy "close-air-support" missions, which usually involve a flyover show of force or surveillance work rather than bombing, also have grown by 30 percent to 40 percent this spring, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Cox, a ground-forces liaison.

Examples of attacks, as reported in the Air Force's daily summary:

• Friday, an Air Force F-16 fighter dropped a guided 500-pound bomb near the northern city of Tal Afar that destroyed a vehicle laden with explosives to be used as a bomb.

• Thursday, an F-16 dropped a similar bomb on "an inaccessible building being used by insurgents" near Samarra, north of Baghdad, with "good effects."

Air Force Col. Gary Crowder, deputy director of the regional air-operations center, said civilian airstrike casualties "pale in comparison" with civilian casualties from ground combat. "In Iraq, we minimize our deployment of air-delivered weapons in populated areas," he said.

Air attacks in Iraq are relatively low compared with the numbers of weapons dropped in Afghanistan: 929 this year as of May 15.