U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of  Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009, at least 4,343 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,495 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

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U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identifications:

Army Staff Sgt. Todd W. Selge, 25, Burnsville, Minn., died Sept. 3, 2009 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Army Sgt. Jordan M. Shay, 22, Salisbury, Mass., died Sept. 3, 2009 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009, at least 742 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Latest identifications:

Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher S. Baltazar Jr., 19, San Antonio, Texas, died Sept. 3, 2009 in Qal Yeh Now, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. He was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Benjamin P. Castiglione, 21, Howell, Mich., died Sept. 3, 2009 in Qal Yeh Now, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations in Helmand province. He was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Battalion.

Army 2nd Lt. Darryn D. Andrews, 34, Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4, 2009 in Yahya Khail District, Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Army Staff Sgt. Randy M. Haney, 27, Orlando, Fla., died Sept. 6, 2009 in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. He was assigned to the 2nd Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Army Staff Sgt. Michael C. Murphrey, 25, Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6, 2009 in FOB Sharana, Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

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BREAKING NEWS

4 U.S. Troops Die as Bombers Strike Across Iraq

A soldier is treated at hospital in Kirkuk, Iraq, Sept. 8, 2009, after he was injured by a roadside bomb that killed the head of an anti-terrorism police unit and four of his bodyguards. (Photo credit: Marwan Ibrahim / AFP — Getty Images)

September 8, 2009

BAGHDAD — Roadside bombs killed four U.S. soldiers in Iraq on Tuesday, the military said, in the deadliest day for American troops in the country in weeks, as a series of bomb attacks along roads claimed eight Iraqi lives.

The first roadside bomb struck a patrol in southern Baghdad, killing one American soldier, the military said. A short time later, another bomb targeting a patrol in northern Iraq killed three soldiers, the military said. …

Deadliest day

Tuesday marked the deadliest day for U.S. forces since June 29, when four soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

In all, at least 4,343 U.S. service members have died since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The attack on the troops was one of a series of roadside bombings around the country.

An explosion killed the head of an Iraqi anti-terrorism police unit and four of his bodyguards in a northern town that is home to large Shiite population, said Brig. Sarhat Qader of the police in Kirkuk, a city farther north.

The town, Armili, has about 26,000 residents — most of them Shiites from Iraq’s Turkomen ethnic minority — and has been attacked before. In 2007, a suicide truck bomber struck a market there, killing more than 100 people. …

Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol near the town of Daqouq, killing two policemen and wounding three others, Kirkuk police said. …

Assassination attempt

Also in Baghdad, a Health Ministry official escaped an assassination attempt Tuesday when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in the eastern part of the capital, but one ministry employee died in the blast, Iraqi police and health officials said.

Eight bystanders and four people in the convoy were also wounded in the attack, which appeared directed at Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartosi, who is in charge of eastern Baghdad’s medical facilities. The doctor escaped unharmed, the officials said.

North of the capital, in the city of Tikrit, a roadside bomb targeting the convoy of the deputy provincial governor injured one of his bodyguards. The deputy governor was unharmed, police said. …

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4 U.S. Troops Killed in ‘Complex’ Afghan Attack

Video

The deadly work of war (NBC Nightly News, Sept. 8, 2009) — A U.S. Army Stryker brigade has lost nine men in three weeks in the Arghendab Valley, a Taliban stronghold outside Kandahar — all to IEDs, which are killing Americans in record numbers. NBC’s Richard Engel reports from the front lines. (02:52)

September 8, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four U.S. troops died Tuesday in a militant attack in eastern Afghanistan, and NATO forces acknowledged for the first time that civilians were among the dozens killed in an airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four American service members were killed Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

U.S. forces spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the troops were caught up in “a complex attack” Tuesday morning in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan. …

McClatchy Co. newspapers reported four U.S. Marines died in an ambush by insurgents. Seven Afghan troops and an interpreter also were killed in the attack and hours-long battle that followed, McClatchy’s Jonathan S. Landay reported. He said the fighting took place after U.S. and Afghan forces were asked to a meeting with local elders near the village of Gangigal some six miles from the Pakistani border.

The deaths bring to 11 the number of U.S. service members killed in September. Last month, when 51 troops died, was the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 to oust the Taliban regime. …

Also Tuesday, a car bomber attacked an international convoy near the entrance to the military airport in Kabul. The chief of Kabul’s criminal investigation department, Abdul Ghafar Sayadzada, said three Afghan civilians were killed and six wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, the third major attack by insurgents in the capital in four weeks.

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Afghanistan Analysis

IEDs take toll on Army Stryker brigade

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports in theater on the harsh toll IEDs are taking on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

It’s crunch time in Afghanistan

London-based NBC News Correspondent Jim Maceda, who has reported from Afghanistan since 2001, examines  divergent views on the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

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9/10/09 Iraq update

Truck Bomb Kills At Least 19 in Iraqi Kurd Village

Iraqis stand on the edge of a crater left by a deadly bomb attack in the village of Wardek on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009. (Photo credit: Mujahed Mohammed / AFP — Getty Images)

September 10, 2009

BAGHDAD — A suicide truck bomber hit a residential area of a Kurdish village in northern Iraq before dawn Thursday, killing at least 19 people and injuring 30 others, officials said, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of ethnic attacks in the region. …

A police officer and health official in Mosul said the bomb went off around 12:30 a.m. in the village of Wardek, about 35 miles southeast of the city — a region where U.S. commanders have warned that insurgents appear to be trying to stoke an Arab-Kurdish conflict. …

Video Bomb rocks north (MSNBC, Sept. 10, 2009) — A suicide bomber hit a residential village in Iraq’s oil-rich Kurdish north. MSNBC.com’s Dara Brown reports. (00:54)

The blast took down a number of houses and the casualty toll was expected to rise because many people are still missing in the rubble, the officials said.

Local security forces intercepted a second suicide truck bomber, killing the driver and defusing the bomb before it could be detonated, they said. …

The violence that continues to plague Iraq’s north and the capital has forced the government in Baghdad to acknowledge gaps in security.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have identified the split between Iraq’s majority Arabs and the Kurdish minority as a greater long-term threat to Iraq’s stability than the Sunni-Shiite conflict. …

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — September 8, 2008

On the Campaign Trail: Day 56

One year ago today, on the 56th day of my campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I featured reporting from Minnesota Public Radio on the primary election, candidate information from the North Metro TV Voter Guide, my campaign schedule for the final day of the campaign, and updates from the Iraq war.

The situation in Iraq a year ago today was not appreciably different than it is today:

Bombs wound 14 in Baghdad

A wounded Iraqi policeman arrives at al-Kindi hospital after a roadside bomb attack on his patrol in east Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Suicide bomber kills 6, wounds 54 at market in Iraq

Muntazer Ahmed, 4, was wounded in a suicide bomb attack on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008. (Photo credit: The Associated Press)