980 U.S. forces have died in Iraq since last Memorial Day

BAGHDAD -- Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year ago.

The figure is telling -- and expected to rise in coming months.

In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq, compared to 807 deaths in the previous year.

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A soldier walks past burning reeds razed to prevent insurgents from seeking cover 12 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, two weeks after an ambush left four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi soldier dead and three missing. Only one U.S. soldier's body has been found.
maya alleruzzo / the associated press

And with the Baghdad security operation now 3-1/2 months old, even President Bush has predicted a difficult summer for U.S. forces.

"It could be a bloody -- it could be a very difficult August," he said last week.

U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus on Saturday acknowledged the increase in casualties as a result of the American surge in forces to regain control of Baghdad.

"We're doing heavy fighting. This is a fight. There's a war on out there," he told reporters at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq.

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikiand two top American officials flew to the blistering western desert Saturday in a rare joint outing to highlight gains there in the fight against insurgents, hours before the military reported the deaths of eight U.S. troops.

One of those killed, a Marine, died in combat in Anbar province, once the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the country -- and where the U.S. ambassador, the American commander in Iraq, and the Iraqi leader traveled Saturday.

The Sunni-dominated province has grown calmer in recent months with the flowering of a new alliance among Sunni tribal leaders, the Iraqi government and U.S. led forces, but peace continues to be elusive -- as the death Saturday of the Marine demonstrated.

"We are not saying Anbar province is all sweetness and light; there are still a lot of challenges," Gen. Petraeus said.

Elsewhere on Saturday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in Salahuddin Province, north of Baghdad, when an explosion hit their patrol; another died in a roadside bombing in south Baghdad.

Late Friday, a soldier was killed in an ambush near Taji, north of the capital, and two other soldiers were hit by a roadside bomb on Wednesday in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

Al-Qaida in Iraq is still active in Anbar -- which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi -- and continues to launch devastating attacks, U.S. military officials said. On Thursday, insurgents exploded a car bomb on a passing funeral procession in Fallujah for a tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida. At least 26 mourners were killed.

Despite the security accomplishments, an al-Qaida front group affiliated with insurgent Sunnis warned President Bush on Saturday that the newly approved $95 billion in funds for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan would not improve Washington's chances for success.

"With God's help, the money will heal no wound and change nothing at all," said a statement issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and posted on a Web site commonly used by Islamic extremists.