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We have now lost 700 soldiers. I was thinking how many of the enemy have we taken out? We don't usually fight wars with bad kill ratios, so I'm wondering what is a good estimate of how many Iraqi bad guys have been taken out?

US sergeant branded a coward mounts furious fightbackCombat Stress By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angles 12 January 2004 If Jessica Lynch, the fresh-faced West Virginia teenager turned international media icon, could be described as the accidental hero of the Iraq war, then Georg-Andreas Pogany is the accidental coward. Like Private Lynch, who became an international celebrity largely through the manipulation of the Pentagon's propaganda machine rather than anything she did or did not do on the battlefield, Staff Sergeant Pogany, hired as a translator and interrogator with US Special Forces, did nothing to seek out his poster-child status and almost...

<p>FORT BENNING, Ga., Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The Army has exonerated a 3rd Infantry Division battalion commander of possible war crimes for his role in what soldiers from the unit are calling the "Midtown Massacre," a bloody urban battle in Baghdad last April that blurred the line between enemy combatant and prisoner of war.</p>

MOSUL, Iraq - U.S. troops shot and killed a senior officer of the paramilitary group Saddam Fedayeen after storming his house in this northern city on Wednesday, his neighbors said. The U.S. Army confirmed there were raids early Wednesday in Mosul but refused to comment on the reported death of Col. Ghanem Abdul-Ghani Sultan al-Zeidi. Two of al-Zeidi's neighbors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. troops stormed his one-story house in Mosul's central neighborhood of al-Sukar at about 4:00 a.m. and shooting was heard later. Helicopters took part in the operation, the neighbors said. The gate of al-Zeidi's...

Top Saddam general shot dead From correspondents in Baghdad 06Dec03 GUNMEN shot dead today a former secret police general who had been in charge of western Baghdad under ousted strongman Saddam Hussein, a witness told said. General Khalaf Alussi died at his home under a hail of bullets fired by four men, said Wissam Idan, a 24-year-old building worker at the house in the capital's al-Yarmuk area. The general, who died on the spot, headed the feared secret police in the al-Kharkh district on the west bank of the Tigris river. At the hospital where the body was taken, his...

FN Alert:   Banner: US forces kill 46 Iraqis trying to ambush them in central Iraq.   Steve Centanni: 46 Iraqis were killed and 8 others were taken captive.       Across wire:4th Infantry Division repelled multiple ambush attacks, at least 18 Iraqi attackers, 5 US soldiers were wounded. No reported deaths.

Jason Hash will never forget the first time he saw a dead body. It wasn't just one body but dozens of them, sprawled along the dirt road in lifeless heaps. Jason knew from the vapors rising from the bodies that they hadn't been dead for long. In the month leading up to that mid-March day, Jason and his fellow Marines had been living in foxholes in Kuwait. They'd stood guard in shifts, deprived of sleep, clutching rifles, staring into darkness, picturing the faces of loved ones back home. For weeks they'd stood inside those holes, waiting for something, anything to...

Iraqis welcomed U.S. troops, local Marine says BY BRIAN WILLIAMS Times Staff Writer KOUTS -- On a peaceful rural porch overlooking a broad stretch of cornfield, with silent hummingbirds hovering at a feeder, Pfc. Jacob Cristea shows photos of blown-out tanks, himself assembling shrapnel grenades and the grim discoveries in a mass grave. Cristea has blood and guts war stories from his six months in Iraq and Kuwait, but he says the last thing he wants to do is to tell them. Instead, the Marine prefers Americans see beyond the fighting and dying in Iraq and know the good he...

<p>American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions.</p> <p>The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots and their commanders have confirmed that they used an upgraded version of the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm, which has a distinctive smell, was used because of its psychological effect on an enemy.</p>

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders say they dropped firebombs similar to napalm on Iraqi troops earlier this year, according to a report published Tuesday. The Marines say that in March, U.S. warplanes dropped dozens of incendiary bombs near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River in central Iraq to clear the way for troops headed to Baghdad.

Officials confirm dropping firebombs on Iraqi troops Results are 'remarkably similar' to using napalm By James W. Crawley UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 5, 2003 American jets killed Iraqi troops with firebombs – similar to the controversial napalm used in the Vietnam War – in March and April as Marines battled toward Baghdad. Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions created massive fireballs. Mark 77 Firebomb "We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. James Alles...

American jets killed Iraqi troops with firebombs – similar to the controversial napalm used in the Vietnam War – in March and April as Marines battled toward Baghdad. Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions created massive fireballs. "We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. James Alles in a recent interview. He commanded Marine Air Group 11, based at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, during the war. "Unfortunately, there were people there because...

VIII: The Story of a Palestinian Mujahid - Abu Khaled Al-Ahram's reporter Rasha Sa'ad interviewed a Palestinian fighter when he returned home. The following are excerpts from the interview: "'I cannot believe that I am alive. I was in hell and Allah brought me back,' said Abu Khaled, who joined other Arab volunteers in the battle at Baghdad's airport in early April. Abu Khaled's - not his real name - story begins one month earlier. It was back in March that Abu Khaled, a Palestinian, was deported from Jordan. Unable to immediately return to the West Bank, he had to...

A group of British and American researchers said yesterday that the number of killed because of the American- British war against Iraq reached more than 6,000 following statistics that covered the victims in remote areas in Iraq. Earlier statistics said that 5500 Iraqis were the victims of the war. The report of the researchers which was issued under the title "defining the number of Iraqi bodies" was based on reports of the mass media and 12 programs to define the number of killed Iraqis. Independent investigators from inside and outside Iraq took part in the investigation. The report estimated the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. officials on Sunday defended the slow process of identifying Iraqi soldiers killed during the U.S.-led invasion after an Iraqi official in the Health Minister complained the United States isn't doing enough to arrange formal burials. Dr. Thamir Najim al-Shimari, head of the coalition-controlled ministry's committee to find war victims, blamed "slow action" by U.S. authorities and misleading information for the mounting misery of the relatives of those soldiers. "They are not doing it quickly," he said. "They have listened to our demands several times, but have made no progress." He said many soldiers' remains are...

It is fairly meticulous, how the U.S. military deals with enemy dead. First, no matter how bad they are, someone will go over them looking for identification. If any can be found, that will be logged. Then the grid coordinates where they are found are recorded as well as any unit intelligence that might be had. Then they bring them to the cemetery for interment where they are wrapped in a heavy ply plastic and placed in the grave, head towards Mecca. This is very important, because they are Muslims. Staff Sgt. Michael Bamba of Guam unrolled a large piece...

SADDAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Baghdad (AFP) - Some 30 US tanks rolled deep into Baghdad early Saturday, marking a new step in the advance on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's seat of power, a commander said. Colonel Will Grimsley said the tank battalion task force from the 3rd Infantry Division punched their way toward the heart of Baghdad on a road leading from the capital's main airport, 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the southwest. Grimsley, commander of the division's First Brigade, said the raid was a show of force a day after US forces seized control of most of the airport...

  'I deserted Saddam's army' Iraq had a huge army, but only a fraction of its soldiers were killed or captured during the war. Hamed Nissam was one of those who took off his uniform and simply melted away. Hamed Nissam: "I held up a white flag and ran home" I was a tank driver defending Basra. It was a very old Russian tank, made in 1969.Because of the Americans' technological advantage, we were sure that we could not survive the war. We were horrified by the prospect of meeting them in battle. I was very afraid of being...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 19, 2003 (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Iraqi military commanders, certain they could never counter overwhelming American air power, thought they could defeat the United States by making a bloody stand for Baghdad that would so sicken the American public that the United States would withdraw its troops and go home. So Iraqi field commanders were surprised April 8, as they were preparing to battle American incursions into the capital, when they were ordered to withdraw and return to their bases north of the city, according to an Iraqi major...

Missing, presumed dead The fate of many people - on both sides of the conflict - is still unclear 13 April 2003 The soldiers "I didn't receive any order from the beginning." An Iraqi colonel with the elite Republican Guard, who commanded a force of about 600 men, has revealed that his demoralised men fled from their units, without fear of punishment, as Allied bombs crashed on to their positions. The colonel, who joined other comrades changing back into civilian clothes to catch the bus home about a week before Baghdad was taken, said he had initially been ordered to...