While Press Attention Drifts: A New Casualty Record in Iraq

By: E&P Staff While the press focused on the 2004 presidential campaign, Hurricane Charley and the Olympic Games in August, the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq quietly rose to a record high for any month since the March 2003 invasion, despite the turn over of power.

This surprising fact was reported in Sunday's Washington Post by Karl Vick, a veteran of covering the conflict.

Vick said the total of the wounded, about 1,100, was "by far" the highest injury toll "and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas."

At the same time, fatalities for the month, 66, did not rise along with the injury rate, a first in Iraq. Commanders told Vick they had no explanation, but Col. Ryck Beitz at the 31st Combat Support hospital in Baghdad said, "All I know is, I've got more patients here."

Hospital staffers also told Vick that troops "might have suffered more severe wounds in August than in previous months." Normally, about half of the wounded Americans who come to emergency rooms there have "acute" injuries. Last month this jumped to three in four.

While battles in Najaf and the Sadr City slum have gotten most of the press attention, fighting continues west and north of Baghdad. Twenty-six Marines were killed during August in Anbar province.