Despite Upgrades, Humvee Deaths Up

Coming on the heels of insurgent violence in Iraq on Wednesday, a new report says that despite stronger armor on over 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year based on Pentagon records.

Most are dying in their Humvees, USA Today reports, as insurgents plant more powerful bombs and use different triggering methods to evade U.S. countermeasures, experts tell the newspaper.

According to Pentagon casualty reports, 67 U.S. troops have died this year in roadside bomb attacks on their Humvees, and another 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers.

That's up from 27 in Humvees — and an additional 38 deaths involving IED attacks on other vehicles — during the first four months of 2005, USA Today notes, using Pentagon and the newspaper's Iraq war casualty database. Roadside bombs also killed more troops in Afghanistan, USA Today reports, with 10 killed this year, compared with one in the first four months of 2005.

Meanwhile, insurgents stepped up their campaign Wednesday to stop Sunni Arabs from joining government security forces, killing at least 15 police recruits in a suicide attack Wednesday and fatally shooting three soldiers who recently had joined the Iraqi army, officials said.

Both attacks occurred in Anbar province, a mostly Sunni area west of Baghdad where some of Iraq's worst terrorist attacks and battles between Sunni-led insurgents and U.S. forces have taken place since the Iraq war began more than three years ago.

In the suicide attack, a bomber blew himself up while standing in a line of recruits outside Fallujah's police headquarters, killing at least 15 people and wounding 30, said police 1st Lt. Omar Ahmed. Thirteen of the dead were recruits and two policemen, Ahmed said.

The bomber, dressed in civilian clothes, struck outside the entrance of the police building, police said. His hidden bomb exploded several minutes after he joined the crowd of recruits waiting to enter the building and apply for jobs, Ahmed said.

At about the same time, police found the bodies of three soldiers from Fallujah who had been shot and dumped in Khaldiyah, a city west of their hometown, said Dr. Rafie Mahmoud.

On Sunday, the three men had graduated from basic training as part of the first all-Sunni class in the Iraqi army. On Tuesday, the bodies of four other Iraqi soldiers from that class were found in Ramadi, officials said.

In other developments: