BAGHDAD, September 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The number of US military casualties in Iraq is steadily growing as the American forces are still facing uphill resistance in various areas of the country, press reports said Sunday, September5 .
About 1,100 US soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq during August, by far the highest injury toll for any month since the invasion of Iraq began and an indication of the intensity of fighting flaring in urban areas, according to the Washington Post.
The paper quoted US medical commanders as saying that the sharp increase reflects more than three weeks of fighting by two Army and one Marine battalion in the southern city of Najaf.
At the same time, US units frequently fight in a sprawling Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad and in the Sunni cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra, all of which remain under the control of Iraqi fighters two months after the transfer of political authority, it added.
Further, anti-American sentiments are growing among ordinary Iraqis, who question the US claims for invading the oil-rich country - namely finding weapons of mass destruction, none of which have been found so far in Iraq.
The fact no such weapons have been found raised fears the US-led invasion of Iraq was based on false pretexts.
Press reports say the number of US troops killed in Iraq is also steadily approaching 1000 and almost 7,000 wounded since the March, 2003 invasion.
"They were doing battlefield urban operations in four places at one time," said Lt. Colonel Albert Maas, operations officer for the2 nd Medical Brigade, which oversees US military hospitals in Iraq.
Major Dellone Pascascio, who compiles tallies of US wounded across Iraq, was quoted by the Post as saying injuries sustained in conventional fighting may tend to be slightly less severe than those inflicted by the improvised explosive devices planted along roadsides that continue to kill and maim US forces by spraying shrapnel upward.
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Changing Tactic
The mounting injury toll of US occupation forces in Iraq was set have a deep impact on the Pentagon's strategic and military planning for current and future conflicts.
Within this context, US officials have said Washington would emphasize the use of special forces in guerrilla conflicts against fighters rather than fighting large-scale wars against traditional enemies under a broad change in defense thinking.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and senior military officers were briefed on the proposal last month by Christopher "Ryan" Henry, a senior official in the Pentagon's policy office, but no decisions have been made, officials were quoted by Reuters as saying Friday, September3 .
"We have very large deficiencies in the areas of irregular warfare and catastrophic challenges and disruptive challenges. And we have maybe moderate risk in traditional (warfare). So it's a question of striking the right balance across the board but not leaving yourself naked in any of those areas," a senior defense official said.
After the US forces occupied Iraq, some Iraqis resorted to innovative resistance operations to eject foreign forces out of the country, including strapping explosives to dogs to bomb sensitive targets.
Heavy Fighting
Meanwhile, US troops and fighters battled in the northern Iraqi town of Tall Afar on Sunday for the second straight day, leaving a number of Iraqis and American soldiers killed and wounded.
Fighting erupted after gunmen fire on a US army convoy outside the town,60 kilometers (40miles) west of Mosul, police lieutenant Ghaith Mohammed Al-Obeidi told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
US soldiers and Iraqi national guardsmen then poured into Tall Afar and clashes broke out in the town center, lasting for about two hours before the US and Iraqi forces withdrew, he said, adding that US helicopters opened fire on the fighters.
The fighters are currently in full control of Tall Afar, Obeidi said.
Thirteen Iraqis were killed and 53 wounded Saturday, September4 , when a US army battalion, backed by Iraqi national guardsmen, launched an offensive in Tall Afar.
Amid the heavy fighting, an F- 16war plane dropped a bomb near the town, while the fighters hit a US helicopter with gunfire and two soldiers were wounded as the chopper made an emergency landing.
One US soldier was also wounded overnight, when American forces detained14 Iraqis in a raid on the road between the Iraqi city of Fallujah and Mahmudiya, the military said.
Mahmudiya commands access to the main road linking Baghdad to several major cities to the south, including the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala, and has become a virtual no-go zone for foreigners and Iraqi police.
Also a car that exploded Sunday near a US military convoy in the area of Al-Dujail, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. One US soldier and up to six Iraqis were lightly wounded in the attack.