[pisser]

On track to hit 4,000 by the end of the year!

Other developments

The Pentagon on Monday identified four U.S. National Guard units that will return to Iraq for a second time: the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Little Rock, Arkansas; the 45th Infantry Brigade, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indianapolis, Indiana; and the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Columbus, Ohio. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed papers Friday for the four brigades to return to Iraq later this year or in early 2008. The 12,000 troops are to be rotated into the country to replace forces that are leaving.


Six American soldiers died in Iraq on Sunday, including three killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, U.S. commanders reported. In another attack south of the city, one soldier was killed and three wounded Sunday when their unit came under rocket or mortar fire, according to the military. Two more soldiers were killed in fighting north of Baghdad, in Salaheddin and Diyala provinces, U.S. commanders said.


Four U.S. soldiers also were reported killed Saturday in an explosion in Diyala, which includes the restive city of Baquba. The U.S. death toll in the Iraq war stands at 3,280, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department.


A powerful car bomb killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 26 others Sunday in Mahmoudiya, south of the Iraqi capital, authorities said. At least five people were killed in blasts Sunday in Baghdad, police said. Also Sunday, 17 bodies were found