U.S. deaths since start of war approach 2,000

An attorney for a co-defendant of Saddam Hussein was found dead.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military announced Friday the deaths of four Marines and one soldier, bringing the number of American servicemen and women who've died in Iraq since the war began 21/2 years ago to 1,993.
Three of the Marines were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad and the fourth died Wednesday in a car-bomb attack in Karbala. The soldier died of wounds sustained during a mortar attack Thursday on a base in Hit, northwest of the Iraqi capital.
With deaths coming at an average of more than two per day, it appears likely that the number of dead will reach 2,000 in a matter of days.
There's nothing inherently special about that number, but it provides a marker of sorts for the American effort to transform Iraq from dictatorship to democracy, and it's a sobering reminder of the human cost of the U.S. presence in that country, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has suggested could last another 10 years.
More than 15,000 wounded
The number of troops wounded in Iraq stands at 15,220, according to the Pentagon. Of those, 7,159 were so seriously hurt that they haven't returned to duty.
As the Bush administration vows to stay the course in Iraq, a poll earlier this month by the Pew Research Center found that 50 percent of American adults now think that invading Iraq was the wrong decision, and 48 percent think that the United States should bring the troops home as soon as possible.
Lawyer found dead
Meanwhile, the lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants on trial for the Dujail mass slayings was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head and his body dumped near a Sunni mosque in the capital, Iraqi authorities said Friday.
Saadoun al-Janabi, the attorney for the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was kidnapped Thursday evening when gunmen barged into his office, just one day after he sat in court for the first day of the trial for al-Bandar, Saddam and six of their co-defendants.
Ten gunmen wearing police and military uniforms walked into al-Janabi's office Thursday evening in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood, and he went with them without resistance, police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.
Hours later, his body, bearing signs of torture, was found on a sidewalk by the Fardous Mosque in the nearby Ur neighborhood.
Sunni insurgents are known to have disguised themselves in police or military uniforms in attacks usually targeting Shiites. But Sunni Arab leaders have accused Interior Ministry forces or militias allied to the Shiite-led government of killing Sunnis taken from their homes by men in uniform.
The killing spread fear among the other 12 defense lawyers at Wednesday's opening session of the trial for Saddam and seven co-defendants. On Friday, they demanded that the trial -- now set to resume Nov. 28 -- be postponed if investigations into the slaying are not finished.
Al-Janabi's killing had immediate ramifications as one of the defense attorneys working on the trial said he and his colleagues would refuse to take part in the proceedings until they are provided guards paid for by the Iraqi government.
"Our demand is to have security protection for us," said Majeed Hedab Halhoul, an attorney for former Vice President Taha Ramadan and the former president's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan. "We want to choose the guards from people we know, because we do not trust the Iraqi government. The government should give them weapon passes and pay their salaries. We're going to keep boycotting until they meet our demands."