| Damn. |
Two other soldiers from the 29th Brigade Combat Team were also killed in a bombing on Monday near Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Those deaths raised the death toll for October to more than 90, the highest monthly total since January when 107 American service members died.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said there is no readily apparent explanation for why the number of US casualties was higher in October than in previous months. But he said the insurgentsâ roadside bombs - which the military calls improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - are getting more sophisticated. âWe see an adversary that continues to develop some sophistication on very deadly and increasingly precise stand-off type weapons - IEDs, in particular. Theyâre obviously quite capable of killing large numbers of noncombatants indiscriminately, and weâre seeing a lot of that, too,â Di Rita told reporters.
The insurgents continually search for new and more effective ways to use IEDs, he said, while US forces look for new ways to counter the IED threat. âWeâre getting more intelligence thatâs allowing us to stop more of these things, find more of them. So weâre learning from them (the insurgents) and the enemy is learning from us, and itâs going to be that way for as long as there is an insurgency,â Di Rita said.