BAGHDAD — Nine more American troops died in Iraq, the U.S. military reported Monday, five of them in a vehicle accident in a remote, rain-soaked western area. Their deaths brought the number of service members killed so far this month to 13 — nearly half the number for all of March.
Three more Americans — two Marines and a sailor — were missing in the Sunday accident in which a truck overturned near Asad air base, a U.S. statement said. All the dead were Marines, the statement added.
It gave no reason for the accident except that it was not a result of hostile fire. Heavy rains fell over the area during the weekend.
Also Sunday, three Marines and a sailor were killed by "hostile fire" in Anbar province, which includes the Asad base, the military said. No further details, including the precise location, were released.
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It was the first time that four Americans had been killed in a single attack since Feb. 22, when four soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division died in a bombing in northern Iraq.
Thirty-one U.S. troops died in Iraq in March, the lowest monthly death toll for U.S. forces since February 2004. But the relatively good news quickly became worse on the first day of April, when four were killed, including two pilots who died when their Apache helicopter crashed.
U.S. officials said the helicopter was probably shot down. The militant al-Rashideen Army claimed responsibility, and Al-Jazeera television aired footage Monday provided by the insurgents, which they claimed showed parts of the wreckage.
Although U.S. casualties have been on the decline, deaths among Iraqis have increased because of rising tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. At least 1,038 Iraqi civilians died last month in war-related violence, according to an Associated Press count. The AP count showed at least 375 Iraqi civilians killed in December, 608 in January and 741 in February. Most of the increase appeared a result of a sharp rise in the number of civilians found dead throughout Baghdad — apparent victims of sectarian reprisal killings.
The alarming rise in the civilian toll has put new urgency into efforts by Iraqi politicians to form a new unity government following December's elections. That message was delivered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a visit that ended Monday.
"First and foremost, the purpose of this trip is to encourage and to urge the Iraqis to do what the Iraqis must do because the Iraqi people deserve it," Rice said. "But yes, the American people, the British people … need to know that everything is being done to keep progress moving."
Rice and Straw avoided any public call for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step aside as the Shiite nominee for a second term — a key demand of Sunni and Kurdish politicians before they will join a new government.
Nevertheless, the visit clearly increased pressure on al-Jaafari, and for the first time officials of his own Shiite bloc called for him to step down.
Following the visit, al-Jaafari's supporters scrambled Monday to try to rally support for him, even as other politicians sought ways to remove him if he refused to step aside.
● Deaths: 2,338
● Wounded: 17,381
● No casualties identified Monday.
Source: Department of Defense. Deaths as of Monday. Wounded as of March 28.
