February 11, 2009 3:55 PM
- Text
2007 Deadliest Year For U.S. In Iraq
(CBS/AP)
With nearly two months remaining, 2007 became the bloodiest year of the Iraq war for American troops - 853 dead. The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five more soldiers and one sailor, pushing the toll past the previous worst - 850 in 2004.
A senior Navy officer, meanwhile, announced the planned release of nine Iranian prisoners and was at pains to say that a major cache of Iranian-made weapons and bombs displayed for reporters appeared to have been shipped into Iraq before Tehran made a vow to stop the flow of armaments.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that Iran had made such assurances to the Iraqi government. He did not reveal when the pledge was issued.
While 2007 became the war's deadliest year, there has been a sharp downturn in both Iraqi and American deaths over the past two months and a decline in Iranian weapons deliveries could be one of several factors for the decrease.
"It's our best judgment that these particular EFPs ... in recent large cache finds do not appear to have arrived here in Iraq after those pledges were made," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq's communications division, told reporters Tuesday.
Among the weapons Washington has accused Iran of supplying to Iraqi Shiite militia fighters are EFPs, or explosively formed projectiles. They fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating even the most heavily armored military vehicles, and thus are more deadly than other roadside bombs.
The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, said last week that there had been a sharp decline in the number of EFPs found in Iraq in the last three months. At the time, he and Gates both said it was too early to tell whether the trend would hold, and whether it could be attributed to action by Iranian authorities. Iran publicly denies that it has sent weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.
Two of the Iranians who will be freed "in the coming days" were among five captured in a January U.S. raid on an Iranian government facility in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country.
The Americans said the five were members of Iran's elite Quds Force, an arm of the Revolutionary Guards. Iran said the five were diplomats working in a facility that was undergoing preparations to be a consular office.
Smith told reporters the identities of the nine Iranians would be released later and that many of them had been taken prisoner through the course of the war. He said the decision to release the nine was made after they were determined not to be a threat to U.S. forces.
In other developments:
The U.S. military said Iraqi troops had discovered 22 bodies in a mass grave northwest of Baghdad over the weekend. It was the second mass grave found in the area in less than a month. After the discovery, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an operation Sunday, including ground raids and air assaults targeting al Qaeda in the area, the U.S. statement said. About 30 suspects were detained, it said. Two car bomb facilities and a number of weapons caches also were found.
President Abdullah Gul said Tuesday that Turkey will do "what it believes to be right" in the fight against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. But with winter rapidly approaching in the mountainous region, and intense pressure from the U.S. to avoid an all-out cross-border incursion, officials and experts said Turkey will most likely be looking toward a limited offensive involving raids and aerial assaults.
U.S. House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a $460 billion Pentagon bill that bankrolls pricey weapons systems and bomb-resistant vehicles for troops, but has little for Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats have been reluctant to say when Congress might consider President Bush's $196 billion request to pay expressly for combat operations.
A new report issued Monday by the Iraqi Red Crescent shows the number of internally displaced people is now greater than the number of Iraqis who have fled the country altogether, seeking refuge in neighboring states like Syria and Jordan. The report said nearly 2.3 million driven from their homes remain inside Iraq.
A senior Navy officer, meanwhile, announced the planned release of nine Iranian prisoners and was at pains to say that a major cache of Iranian-made weapons and bombs displayed for reporters appeared to have been shipped into Iraq before Tehran made a vow to stop the flow of armaments.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that Iran had made such assurances to the Iraqi government. He did not reveal when the pledge was issued.
While 2007 became the war's deadliest year, there has been a sharp downturn in both Iraqi and American deaths over the past two months and a decline in Iranian weapons deliveries could be one of several factors for the decrease.
"It's our best judgment that these particular EFPs ... in recent large cache finds do not appear to have arrived here in Iraq after those pledges were made," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the Multi-National Force-Iraq's communications division, told reporters Tuesday.
Among the weapons Washington has accused Iran of supplying to Iraqi Shiite militia fighters are EFPs, or explosively formed projectiles. They fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating even the most heavily armored military vehicles, and thus are more deadly than other roadside bombs.
The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, said last week that there had been a sharp decline in the number of EFPs found in Iraq in the last three months. At the time, he and Gates both said it was too early to tell whether the trend would hold, and whether it could be attributed to action by Iranian authorities. Iran publicly denies that it has sent weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.
Two of the Iranians who will be freed "in the coming days" were among five captured in a January U.S. raid on an Iranian government facility in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country.
The Americans said the five were members of Iran's elite Quds Force, an arm of the Revolutionary Guards. Iran said the five were diplomats working in a facility that was undergoing preparations to be a consular office.
Smith told reporters the identities of the nine Iranians would be released later and that many of them had been taken prisoner through the course of the war. He said the decision to release the nine was made after they were determined not to be a threat to U.S. forces.
In other developments:
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