April has been a deadly month for our troops and this latest tally pushes the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq past 100:
Five U.S. troops were killed in separate attacks in the capital this weekend, including three in a single roadside bombing, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month so far this year.
Both attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up their activities as part of a security crackdown that began on Feb. 14 to quell the sectarian violence.
In violence Monday, a suicide car bomber apparently targeting an Interior Ministry convoy struck an Iraqi checkpoint near a busy square in the predominantly Sunni area of Harthiyah in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.
The bomber detonated his payload, causing part of the road to buckle, as he emerged from an underpass and was heading toward the checkpoint being manned by Interior Ministry commandos. Those killed included two commandos and two civilians.
Actually we have lost 103 soldiers this month, but let’s not forget our coalition. When you add in the 12 U.K. soldiers and one Polish soldier all killed in Iraq this month, we get an average of 3.87 soldiers killed per day. The last time we had an average this high was in January 2005, when a helicopter crash killed 30 American soldiers. Total amount of U.S. soldiers killed in that month was 107.
November 2004 holds the record as deadliest month for American soldiers – 137.
So is this the progress we were supposed to see? Boehner’s 90 days are well over now. So John – is the surge working? I will ask that more directly a little later.