Nearly 1,000 American forces have died in Iraq since last Memorial Day

IRAQ: Americans have opened nearly 1,000 new graves to bury U.S. troops killed in Iraq since Memorial Day a year ago. The figure is telling - and expected to rise in coming months. In the period from Memorial Day 2006 through Saturday, 980 soldiers and Marines died in Iraq. And with the Baghdad security operation now 3 1/2 months old, even President Bush has predicted a difficult summer for U.S. forces.

"It could be a bloody - it could be a very difficult August," he said last week. U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus on Saturday acknowledged the increase in casualties. "We're doing heavy fighting. This is a fight. There's a war on out there," he told reporters at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq.

Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst with the Brookings Institution and a consultant to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, said the increased casualties were a result of the security operation. Thousands more American soldiers are patrolling the streets and living in isolated outposts across Baghdad, leaving them more vulnerable to attack.

He also said the increase in raids on extremist Shiite militiamen had brought a wave of retaliatory attacks.

Baghdad, Sunday, AP