IRAQ: Ten US soldiers were killed on Tuesday, the US military said yesterday, in one of the sharpest spikes of attacks on American forces battling soaring sectarian violence and a Sunni Arab insurgency.
The deaths bring to at least 68 the number of US troops killed in October, an exceptionally high toll that is likely to bring renewed attention to the Iraq war in the run-up to US congressional elections in November. At least 2,777 US troops have died since the 2003 invasion. Many more Iraqis have been killed.
With two weeks to go until the end of October, the pace will likely make it the deadliest month for US forces since January 2005. US commanders have attributed the rising toll to more aggressive patrolling in Baghdad.
After falling to 43 in July, the US toll rose to 65 in August and to 71 in September.
US commanders have conducted major security sweeps in the capital since August to flush out militants. Despite the crackdown, violence has continued in Baghdad and other areas.
Meanwhile, dozens of al-Qaeda-linked gunmen took to the streets in Ramadi yesterday in a show of force to announce the city was joining an Islamic state comprising Iraq's mostly Sunni Arab provinces, Islamists and witnesses said.
Witnesses in Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, said gunmen dressed in white marched through the city as mosque loudspeakers broadcast the statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, a Sunni militant group led by al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Following a request by the Iraqi government, the US military yesterday released a senior aide of a pro-government Shia cleric and militia leader detained on Tuesday. The move comes despite pressure from US commanders demanding that prime minister Nuri al-Maliki rein in militias.
Sheikh Mazin al-Saedi, an aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had been detained during a raid on his Baghdad house. In background briefings and in private conversations, US commanders and US government officials have expressed growing frustration at Mr Maliki's failure to move against militias.
Mr Maliki, a Shia, has pledged to deal with militias but disbanding them could put him in a precarious situation because they are tied to political parties in his coalition.
Mr Sadr, who heads the Mehdi Army militia that has launched two uprisings against US forces, controls a large bloc of seats in parliament, which makes Mr Maliki dependent on his support.
Four US soldiers face court martial for the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family in their home in Mahmudiya, a US military official said yesterday. Two of the soldiers could receive the death penalty if convicted.