Show Deaths make 2007 deadliest for US U.S. troops Amit R. R Paley The Washington Post The US U.S. military announced Tuesday that five soldiers and a sailor had been killed a day earlier making 2007 the deadliest year for American troops since the start of the war in Iraq The record death toll of at least military personnel killed this year underscores the high cost of the American troop increase launched in February which has begun to drive down the sectarian violence that once gripped much of the country The strategy was to interject our soldiers between the Iraqi citizens and the terrorists insurgents and militias Lt Col Douglas chief of plans forces in Baghdad said in an interview A r regrettable consequence n of that is your casualties go up But the grim milestone belied a much more optimistic trend Troop casualties have declined sharply since early summer In October the death toll for US U.S. troops fell to 38 its lowest level since March 2006 according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count a Web site that tracks military fatalities more rapidly th than n the Pentagon makes its numbers public Lt Col Dale Kuehl a battalion commander in western Baghdad said fighting in the spring had helped secure local neighborhoods He said there had not been a roadside bomb attack in his area of operations for three months and no mortar or rocket attacks since July In general the area is quiet Kuehl wrote in an e The past year has been an emotional roller coaster I have had some of the worst days of my life but I also have felt a strong sense of accomplishment I am confident that we have established a much more secure environment for the people we have been tasked to protect Kuehl added However a part of me is afraid to believe what we have accomplished knowing what it has cost to t get getus us to today The deaths of the six troops Monday were a collective reminder of the dangers that the US U.S. military still faces in Iraq In the northern province of Tamim four soldiers were killed by an explosion near their vehicle while they conducted combat operations the military said In nearby province a sailor was killed by an explosion it said And in western Anbar province once a stronghold of Sunni extremism but now relatively calm the military said a soldier was killed while conducting combat operations The attacks brought the total death toll for American troops in Iraq this year to higher than the in 2004 when most of the casualties came during scale large-scale conventional battles according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Col JB Burton commander of the j Dagger Brigade Combat Team 1 1st st Infantry Division based in northwestern Baghdad said pitched fighting in May and June was a necessary part of the US U.S. counterinsurgency plan We had to get off these bases and get into the neighborhoods where the enemy was he said We saw an increase in violence but it enabled us talk to citizens and cause al to lose control of their sanctuaries to the point where they're ineffective The Sunni insurgent group al in Iraq has asserted responsibility for some of the worst violence in the country In June Burtons Burton's unit was seeing up to violent events a day and more than 50 US U.S. soldiers killed or wounded every month Now the numbers are dramatically lower Our last related combat-related death knock on wood was in September Burton said Across Baghdad the number of American troops killed has plummeted from 58 in both May and June to 14 last month according to It looks like the beginning of a term long trend to us and we are as we always say cautiously optimistic he said We Ve suspected we were going to have to pay a aprice aprice aprice price up front as the cost of implementing the counterinsurgency strategy said That is regrettable and we miss every one we lost But from where we sit now it looks like those sacrifices have paid off off- At a news conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone Rear Adm Gregory Smith said the violence would be far worse were it not for US U.S. troops' troops success in discovering stockpiles of weapons Simply put its it's the fuel that drives the insurgency that has led to the death and destruction witnessed here in Iraq for the past several years said Smith a US U.S. military spokesman Because of the troop increase this year the number of weapons caches caches' discovered has more than doubled from 2667 in all of 2006 to so far this year Smith said In other indicators of a decline in violence Smith said mortar and rocket attacks have decreased from more than 1000 a month in May and June to less than in October And the number of roadside bombs across Iraq has tumbled from about 65 a day in the fall of of 2006 to less than 30 a day now Smith said Meanwhile violence against Iraqis continued across the country A mass grave filled with 22 bodies in the Lake region of Anbar was discovered over the weekend by Iraqi soldiers the military said Near Samarra a suicide b bomber a car ca filled with explosives ves blew leyO up near a police co commando p checkpoint g fiVe f policemen and one civilian police lieutenant Haidar Kadhim said Twelve other j people were wounded And in a member of the governing council I Aref Youssif al was assassinated an Interior j Ministry official said Three of his bodyguards were also seriously wounded 1 s |