1500 US troops have died in Iraq

[Auburn85 432]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7043921/

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq rose to 1,500 after the military announced Thursday that a soldier was killed in action just south of the capital, an Associated Press count showed.

The latest fatality occurred Wednesday in Babil province, part of an area known as the “Triangle of Death” because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S.- and Iraqi-led forces there.

In eastern Baghdad, two suicide car bombs exploded outside the Interior Ministry, killing at least two policemen and wounding five others, police Maj. Jabar Hassan said. Officials at nearby al-Kindi hospital said 15 people were injured in the blasts.

Hassan said the car bombers had been trailing a police convoy that was trying to enter the ministry. Iraqi security forces opened fire on the vehicles and disabled them before they could arrive at a main checkpoint outside the building, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

“Casualties were very small because they didn’t get to the checkpoint,” Abdul-Rahman said.

Talks falter

Meanwhile, talks aimed at forging a new coalition government faltered Wednesday over Kurdish demands for more land and concerns that the dominant Shiite alliance seeks to establish an Islamic state, delaying the planned first meeting of Iraq’s new parliament.

The snag in negotiations between Shiite and Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq came as clashes and two other car bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday killed at least 14 Iraqi soldiers and police officers — the latest in a relentless wave of violence since elections Jan. 30.

The group led by Iraq’s most wanted terrorist, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, purportedly claimed responsibility in an Internet posting for Wednesday’s clashes and at least one of the bombings. It also claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing Monday that killed 125 people in Hillah, a town south of the capital.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie vowed the attacks would not derail the political process. “The Iraqi government will go after and hunt down each and every one of these terrorists whether in Iraq or elsewhere,” he said.

Americans killed almost daily in Iraq

The U.S. soldier killed Wednesday was assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and died “while conducting security and stability operations,” the military said without elaborating.

As is customary, the name of the soldier was withheld pending notification of family.

U.S. troops are killed nearly every day in Iraq.

The latest death brought to at least 1,500 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the U.S.-led war in Iraq began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,140 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,362 U.S. military members have died, according to AP’s count. That includes at least 1,030 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The tally was compiled by the AP based on Pentagon records and AP reporting.

Toward a coalition government

The U.S. exit strategy is dependent on handing over responsibility for security to Iraq’s fledgling army and police forces. Forming Iraq’s first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process.

Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq’s new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil, with the clergy-backed candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving with only half the deal he needed.

The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, hopes to win backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so it can muster the required two-thirds majority to insure control of top posts in the new government.

Al-Jaafari indicated after the talks that the alliance was ready to accept a Kurdish demand that one of its leaders, Jalal Talabani, become president. However, he would not commit to other demands, including the expansion of Kurdish autonomous areas south to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Kurdish leaders have demanded constitutional guarantees for their northern regions, including self-rule and reversal of the “Arabization” of Kirkuk and other northern areas. Saddam Hussein relocated Iraqi Arabs to the region in a bid to secure the oil fields there.

Politicians had hoped to convene the new parliament by Sunday. But Ali Faisal, of the Shiite Political Council, said the date was now “postponed” and that a new date had not been set.

The Kurds, he added, were “the basis of the problem” in the negotiations.

“The Kurds are wary about al-Jaafari’s nomination to head the government. They are concerned that a strict Islamic government might be formed,” al-Faisal said. “Negotiations and dialogue are ongoing.”

In another twist, alliance deputy and former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi was to meet Thursday with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose party won 40 seats in the assembly. It was unclear why the meeting between the two rivals was taking place.

Both Allawi and Chalabi are secular Shiites opposed to making Iraq an Islamic state. Concerns over a possible theocracy are especially pertinent because the main task of the new assembly will be to write a constitution.

Judge, lawyer on tribunal killed

Meanwhile, officials said the slayings of a lawyer and judge on Iraq’s war crimes tribunal may have occurred because of their position on the court or because they were minority Kurds.

The two members killed Tuesday in Baghdad were judge Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud al-Merwani and his son, lawyer Aryan Barwez al-Merwani, according to the judge’s son Kikawz Barwez Mohammed al-Merwani.

The shootings marked the first time any legal staff working for the Iraqi Special Tribunal have been killed.

My thoughts go out to the families of lost loved ones, but these guys are dying for a cause. They aren't dying for no reason.

[CCTAU 3,345]

If you truly feel that way, then why continue to add negativity to a noble cause. There are leftist orgs out there whose ONLY cry against the war is by counting the number of casualties of our military. Its a war. We all realize that soldiers are dying. But the enemy is also dying and slowly withering away. That is what we should concentrate on.

[Auburn85 432]

If you have followed my feelings on Iraq , you would know that I was for this war.

Seriously, I posted this so someone else on this board wouldn't be compelled too.

It's War , people are going to die. That's a fact plain and simple.

The left wing organizations are doing a good job of the negativity as well as the news(excluding FOX).

The Marines failed to meet their quotas for recruitment this month. Probabaly because they've been told that if they sign up , they will get shipped off to Iraq to die.

When I bring up the negativity of the war in the news to my professor(dem) ,I 'm told that as a journalist should they not feel compelled to report of soldier deaths.

And in my class , there's 2 outspoken conservatives and the rest including the professor, are dems.

[CCTAU 3,345]

Wasn't necessarally a jab at you. Just irritated that the media only wants to report the deaths of our soldiers and not what they accomplish.