baghdad Quarter of US Iraq deaths due to Iran groups - envoy

Quarter of US Iraq deaths due to Iran groups - envoy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq said on Thursday he believed groups backed by Iran were responsible for a quarter of U.S. casualties in the Iraq war but that Tehran was not as influential in Iraq as thought.

More than 4,400 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, battling Shi'ite militia the U.S. military has long said were armed, funded and trained by Iran, and Sunni Islamist insurgents.

A soldier stands guard at the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad August 25, 2010. (REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudan)
The U.S. military will formally end its combat operations in Iraq on Aug. 31 as President Barack Obama seeks to fulfil a promise to U.S. voters to end the war, despite continuing insecurity and political instability in Iraq.

Ambassador James Jeffrey said Tehran had not been able to dictate the outcome of Iraqi coalition talks after an election in March, despite efforts and widespread beliefs that Shi'ite Iran gained unprecedented influence in Iraq after the invasion.

The ousting of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein propelled Iraq's previously oppressed Shi'ite majority into power.

"My own estimate, based just upon a gut feeling, is that up to a quarter of the American casualties and some of the more horrific incidents in which Americans were kidnapped ... can be traced without doubt to these Iranian groups," Jeffrey said.

He said Iran has sought to use Iraqi proxies to destabilise its neighbour and make it inhospitable for foreign forces.

"But I don't see any long-term impact that it, however awful, has had on the development of politics and society here," Jeffrey told Western reporters.

"I believe ... that Iraqis are Iraqi patriots, that they do not want to be dominated or dictated to by anybody, not the United States, not Iran, not any of their other neighbours."

Coalition talks since the inconclusive election have failed to produce a government, despite early agreement between Iraq's main Shi'ite blocs to form a parliamentary alliance and efforts by Tehran to encourage Iraq's Shi'ite parties to unite.
Coppied by http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/27/worldupdates/2010-08-27T033048Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-510970-1&sec=Worldupdates

June was the bloodist month NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

Watches this NEWS CENTRAL/S. ASIA Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war

More than 2,000 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began in late 2001, according to the independent icasualties.org website.

In all, 2,002 soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion, including 1,226 Americans and 331 British.

In contrast to these deaths over a span of almost nine years, 1,271 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010.

Last week, a UN mid-year report showed civilian casualties had risen by 31 per cent this year compared with the same period last year.

So far this year, 434 foreign troops have been killed, compared with a peak of 521 in 2009, icasualties.org reported on Sunday.

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June 2010 was the bloodiest month of the war with 102 killed as foreign forces pushed ahead with operations in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Another 88 were killed in July.

There are currently more than 140,000 US and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan aiming to to flush out remnants of Taliban fighters, who went on the offensive after being toppled from government in the 2001 invasion.

Disputes over the Afghan war have already brought down a Dutch government in February and a German president in May.

The losses in Afghanistan are less than half of those in the Iraq war, where at least 4,723 foreign troops have been killed since 2003 - 4,405 of them Americans.

Civilian casualties

But, with the US government cutting troop numbers in Iraq before the formal end of combat operations on August 31, attention is certain to be focused back on the Afghan conflict.

Civilian casualties caused by US and other foreign forces have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western allies and led to a major falling-out between the two sides last year.

The UN report added that Taliban and armed groups were responsible for 76 per cent of casualties.

Deaths caused by "pro-government forces" fell to 12 per cent of the total from 30 per cent last year, due mainly to a 64 per cent fall in deaths caused by aerial attacks.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108161532562124.html