The British military death rate in Iraq is proportionally worse than that of the United States, for the first time since the 2003 invasion, The Sunday Telegraph said.
The contradictions illuminate a White House trying to rally public support behind the war while being realistic about progress in Iraq.
President Elias Antonio Saca announced Saturday that Salvador would cut troop levels in Iraq next month from 380 to 300, while admitting Iraq was facing "a very difficult internal conflict."
As of Saturday, July 14, 2007, at least 3,613 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,967 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The Army has ended a court-martial against an Iraq veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who went absent without leave.
The leftist weekly magazine The Nation has dedicated its entire July 30 edition to the testimonies of 50 US troops shocked by the heavy civilian casualty toll exacted by the US-led occupation of Iraq.
US President George W. Bush said Saturday that a newly released progress report on Iraq proved his unpopular strategy was working and promised it would lead to the return home of US troops.
Away from the headlines and debate over the "surge" in U.S. ground troops, the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in support of American and Iraqi forces.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh on Saturday said the notorious "Chemical Ali," cousin and aide of Saddam Hussein, would be executed in the northern Kurdish town of Halabja.
In the clearest sign yet of Republican anxiety over Iraq, two party elder statesmen have urged President George W. Bush to begin pulling US troops out of the sectarian cross-fire by the end of the year.