2007 is Deadliest Year for Us in Iraq

The Pentagon today reported five US troops and a sailor killed in Iraq on Monday, making this year the deadliest since the 2003 invasion.

The five troops were killed in two incidents in Kirkuk province, and the sailor in Saluddin province, bringing the US death toll for this year to 854. The figure, with two months still to go, outstrips the previous worst, 849 in 2004, when the US took heavy casualties in an attack on Falluja.

The Pentagon attributes the high toll to an initial increase in combat operations, and higher visibility of US troops on the streets earlier this year as part of President George Bush's "surge" strategy, which saw an extra 30,000 troops sent to Iraq.

But after that initial rise in casualties, the numbers killed have been on a downward trend since May; last month's figure was the lowest since early last year.

During the initial stages of the surge, US troops left the protection of their large bases for redeployment in small, neighborhood posts, presenting a target for insurgents.

Since then, they have divided Baghdad with a series of walls and introduced more rigorous ID checks that the US military claims has made it harder for insurgents to move about.

The US occupied Iraq with relatively low loss of life to its own forces, and there was an initial calm in the postwar period, but the overall death toll has since risen to 3,858.

The US is still assessing whether a drop in roadside explosives over the last three months is the result of a promise by Iran, in talks with the US in Baghdad, to try to stem the flow.

The US announced yesterday, possibly as part of a trade-off from the talks, that it is to release nine Iranians held in Iraq, including two of the five men arrested in January, a point of tension between the two countries. Iran claims the two were diplomats, while the US insists they are members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds force.