Monthly U.S. toll in Iraq at 2-year high

BAGHDAD — The monthly death toll for U.S. service members in Iraq hit a two-year high Friday.

Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 were fatally wounded while fighting insurgents in Al Anbar province, bringing the December figure to 107, the military said. That is the highest monthly tally since January 2005, according to the website icasualties.org.

Forty-seven of the deaths occurred in Al Anbar, a western province that is a haven for Sunni Arab insurgents. The Baghdad area was next in number of deaths.

More than half the fatalities in December occurred during attacks involving improvised explosive devices, the website reported.

The remaining troops were killed by gunfire, mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and in vehicle accidents, including a helicopter crash. Two servicemen died of illness.

The Marine deaths reported Friday brought the number of U.S. military fatalities in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,996, icasualties.org said, with 816 of them occurring this year. Last year, 846 American service members died; in 2004, the figure was 848.

Read the rest at the LA Times