Jimmy Royals, a civilian police assistance trainer, points out an object of interest on the banks of the Tigris River during a combined patrol between Iraqi Police and U.S. Military Police in al Kut, Iraq, Nov. 24, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. WestFrom USA Today:
WASHINGTON — U.S. combat deaths in Iraq have flattened at the lowest level since the war began six years ago Thursday, and the Navy has not lost a member to combat in more than a year.
Three Marines have been killed in combat since August, and none since December, records show. The Air Force hasn't had a combat death since April, and the Navy since February 2008.
In some weeks, casualty figures for Iraq show, the number of non-combat deaths for U.S. troops topped those killed in fighting.
In January and February, 15 U.S. servicemembers were killed in hostile action. That compares with 60 for the same period in 2008 and 149 in 2007. In all, through Tuesday, there have been 4,260 U.S. servicemembers killed in Iraq, 3,424 in combat, since the war began in 2003.
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My Comment: This trend will probably continue to go down unless there is a complete failure of leadership and peace among the different Iraqi factions .... a situation that I sincerely doubt.