IRAQ As violence continues, U.S. death toll increases

More than 900 U.S. soldiers were injured in the conflict last month.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The deadliest month of the Iraq war for U.S. troops has taken an especially heavy toll on the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.
Overall, at least 136 U.S. troops died in Iraq in April -- more than in the previous three months combined -- including more than a dozen whose names have not been released because the Army has not notified their families. That compares with death totals of 50 in March, 21 in February and 46 in January.
The dead Americans ranged in age from 18 to 49. At least 13 were teenagers, and at least five were 40 or older.
In the same month, up to 1,361 Iraqis were killed, according to an Associated Press tally.
"No doubt that the casualties suffered in April were the most severe casualties that we have suffered in Iraq to date," the top American commander in the Middle East, Gen. John Abizaid, said Friday. He insisted, however, that U.S. forces are on track to defeat the insurgents.
The number of U.S. wounded also has soared. Firm figures were not available, but the total for April exceeded 900, more than triple the number wounded the month before, according to the Pentagon.
Hit hard
The Army National Guard and Army Reserve were hit especially hard in April, with at least 17 deaths. That is more losses for the nation's corps of citizen soldiers than in any other month of the war.
In the past week alone, six National Guard soldiers and one from the Army Reserve were killed in combat. In all, at least 111 National Guard and Reserve members have died in Iraq so far.
The escalating number of killed and wounded coincided with a surge in violence that began in late March, notably in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah, where U.S. forces initially had too few troops to establish full control, as well as in Baghdad and south-central Iraq.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld conceded at midmonth that he had not expected so many casualties a full year after Baghdad was taken and four months after Saddam Hussein was captured.
In all, 732 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the conflict began, according to the Pentagon's official count Friday. That figure, however, does not include at least some of the one dozen who have died in the past two days.
Most of the deaths have come since President Bush flew aboard a Navy aircraft carrier last May 1 and declared that major combat in Iraq was over. One year later, the insurgency is growing more deadly and shows no sign of collapsing.
One prediction
Abizaid predicted Friday that the level of anti-occupation violence will remain high as the June 30 target date for turning over political control to an interim Iraqi government approaches.
He insisted, however, "We are not in any military danger of losing control."
The pattern of U.S. casualties in Iraq has varied widely since the invasion 13 months ago.
In the approximately three weeks it took the invasion force to topple Saddam's statue in downtown Baghdad and capture the capital, about 120 U.S. troops died. The death toll in May was 37, and it fell to 29 in June, before trending upward as the insurgency took hold.
From July through December, when Saddam was captured, the monthly death toll averaged 46.
For a number of weeks in early 2004 it looked as if the insurgency might be on the wane. In February, the U.S. death toll fell to 21, but in March it more than doubled as anti-occupation violence spread, underscored by the March 31 killing in Fallujah and desecration of four private American contractors.
Every service affected
This April was the only month of the war so far in which at least one member of every service died in Iraq, including a Coast Guardsman killed April 24 in a waterborne suicide attack. The Navy had three deaths and the Air Force had one. The Army and Marine Corps had the rest.
In addition to the six National Guard soldiers and one from the Army Reserve killed in combat in the last week, a South Dakota National Guard soldier died of unspecified nonhostile causes.
Another National Guardsman, Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, was captured by Iraqis on April 9 along with fellow Guardsman Sgt. Elmer Krause of Greensboro, N.C., whose remains were recovered April 23. Maupin's status is listed as captured; his whereabouts are unknown.