Deadliest month for U.S. in Iraq in two years

A funeral hearse with the casket containing the remains of Marine Lance Corporal Brent E. Beeler arrives at the church for Beeler's funeral in Jackson, Michigan December 19, 2006. Beeler was killed in combat near Fallujah, Iraq. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)


December 30, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -December became the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq in two years after the U.S. military reported six more combat deaths, leaving the tally just two short of the emotive 3,000 mark.

Three U.S. marines died on Thursday from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province. One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad and another soldier was killed in Anbar on Friday, the military said on Saturday.

Another statement announced the death of a U.S. soldier killed by a roadside bomb in southwest Baghdad on Friday.

The latest deaths take the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the invasion of March 2003 to 2,998, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks U.S. deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The number who died in December is now 109, three more than the previous high this year in October, and the highest since November 2004 when 137 U.S. servicemen and women died.

Mounting U.S. casualties are raising pressure on President Bush to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from the increasingly unpopular war.