Four more soldiers dead in past 24 hours

Three seperate bomb attacks have killed three more American soldiers in the past 24 hours. Another soldier died in a traffic accident.

And, there's this:

A military spokesman said Wednesday the official toll was being raised to include soldiers who died of their wounds after being evacuated from Iraq.

The official list has 59 American soldiers KIA since Bush declared "mission accomplished" (ignoring the 68 who have died in non-combat situations). It'll be curious to see how many are added to the list when the revised numbers are released.

And things could be worse, especially if Iraq's majority Shiite and fiercely anti-Saddam population trained its guns on the Americans. On that front, things are looking tenuous at best:

In the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Wednesday, several thousand people demonstrated against the U.S. occupation. They shouted anti-American slogans, claiming that American forces in a helicopter tore an Islamic banner from a telecommunications tower. There was no violence.

"We're peaceful people, but one edict (from the imams) and the entire American Army will become our prisoner," said Hassan Azab, a member of the district council. Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, is a Shiite Muslim stronghold in the otherwise Sunni Muslim-dominated captal.

The situation in Basra is finally calming down after two days of anti-British riots. But tensions undoubtedly remain.

But don't worry. Bremer says "The American soldiers here are not sitting ducks."

Glad to have that cleared up.

Posted August 13, 2003 10:32 AM