US casualties in Iraq mount as escalation begins

The first contingent of US reinforcements arrived in Iraq last weekend, as the US military announced the deaths of 25 soldiers in a single day in a series of attacks on Jan. 20. The day's worst loss for US forces came from the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad, which killed 12 soldiers. Iraqi authorities said the helicopter was shot down, but the US military said that the crash was still under investigation. It provided no information about the cause of the crash. A US officer who spoke with a witness in a second helicopter said flares from the Black Hawk's antimissile systems were activated before it exploded in the air, strongly suggesting that it was shot down. Later the same day, insurgents driving Humvees and dressed in US military clothing killed five US soldiers in an ambush in Karbala. Iraqi officials said the gunmen attacked the city's provincial headquarters, where a meeting between US and Iraqi officials was taking place. The attackers drove up in black sports utility vehicles–commonly used by foreign dignitaries–in an attempt to impersonate US personnel. Karbala's provincial governor, Akeel al-Khazaali, said that the local police at a checkpoint on the city's edge waved the vehicles through because they believed the convoy held important US officials. At other checkpoints, the police said, the vehicles sped through without stopping. In one case, some of the impersonators fired their weapons, and when they reached the provincial offices, they simply attacked. After the attack was repelled by US and Iraqi forces, the police said, the gunmen then fled north into Babil Province, where several sport utility vehicles matching the description of those used in the attack were found the next day. It is not uncommon for gunmen to impersonate Iraqi security forces, but this seems to be the first time that attackers have tried to disguise themselves as US military personnel. The sophisticated attack hinted at what could be a new threat for US troops as they start a fresh security plan centered on small bases in Baghdad's bloodiest neighborhoods, where soldiers will live and work with Iraqi forces. Military officials have said that one of their greatest concerns is that troops will be vulnerable to attack from killers who appear to be colleagues. The United States military said that an additional eight US soldiers died in other parts of the country and that two marines died the following day in western Iraq. The deaths brought the weekend toll to 27 and made Jan. 20 the third-deadliest day for United States forces since the war began. The volley of attacks on US forces were followed by repeated barrages of violence targeting civilians throughout the country. A double car bombing hit Baghdad's commercial center on Jan. 22, killing at least 88 people and injuring more than 150. The blasts occurred shortly after midday when a stationary car bomb ripped through rows of busy market stalls in the Bab-al Sharji area on the east bank of the river Tigris. Moments later, a suicide car bomber drove into the crowd of stunned onlookers. Police estimated that each car was packed with up to 220 pounds of explosives. Another attack, apparently aimed at Iraq's Shia community, killed at least 12 people and wounded nearly 30 shortly after dusk when a bomb exploded and mortars landed near a market in Khalis, a mainly Shia town 40 miles north of the capital. The following day, at least nine bomb blasts targeting vehicle convoys and civilians shook Baghdad, killing 11 people and injuring 36, many of them severely. Iraqi authorities also found 19 bodies of young men scattered around the city. The upswing in violence comes at a critical time for US forces, as the first US reinforcements arrived in Baghdad and the surrounding areas. The 3,200-strong contingent sent to Baghdad are the advance guard of a 21,500-strong deployment ordered by President Bush earlier this month. The US military said in a statement that the new troops from the 82nd airborne division would "assist Iraqi security forces to clear, control and retain key areas of the capital city in order to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city." Under the current deployment schedule, it will be May before all five of the brigades are in Iraq. In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 23, President Bush's new choice as the top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, hinted that he would like to deploy the troops sooner, saying that he had asked the Pentagon to dispatch them "as rapidly as possible." Petraeus acknowledged that the guidelines in the military's counterinsurgency manual implied that 120,000 troops would be needed to secure Baghdad. But he reasoned that the roughly 32,000 US troops that would be deployed in the capital under the plan would be enough, because the total number of US and Iraqi security personnel would be about 85,000, while the use of civilian contractors would reduce troop requirements.