General Lynch: Expect increased casualties in coming months

An infantryman with C Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division lays down cover fire on armed gunmen who fired on his convoy as his squad prepares to maneuver down a street behind a Stryker vehicle in Al Doura in March

BAGHDAD — A U.S. Army general on Sunday warned that American casualties would rise in the coming months, a prediction underscored by the deaths of six soldiers and a foreign journalist in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad. Five other American troops died elsewhere over the weekend.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said casualties would climb as American troops went deeper into enemy territory as part of a stepped-up military operation ordered by President Bush in January. Lynch, who oversees a swath of territory to the south and east of Baghdad, gave his bleak prediction on the heels of the deadliest month so far this year for American forces in Iraq.

In April, 104 U.S. troops were killed, only the fourth time since the beginning of 2005 that U.S. deaths have exceeded 100 in a single month. At least 25 troops have been killed so far in May, a grim start to a month in which Democrats are expected to keep up pressure on the White House to plan a withdrawal from Iraq.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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