U.S. notes lower death rate for its troops in Iraq

The U.S. military said Friday that two American soldiers had died in separate incidents, but despite the latest deaths, December was shaping up to be the safest month for U.S. forces in Iraq in nearly four years.

The military gave few details about the most recent casualties. Both occurred Thursday. One soldier died of wounds suffered when a bomb exploded during a foot patrol, and the other was killed by gunfire in the capital, the U.S. military said.

In the first two weeks of November, 23 American troops had been killed, compared with 10 deaths this month, according to the Department of Defense and the independent website icasualties.org.

If the pace is maintained, December could be the least deadly month since February 2004, when 20 U.S. troops died, according to icasualties.org. A total of 3,891 American troops have died since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

U.S. officials attribute the downward trend in deaths to security gains resulting from Iraqis’ rejection of insurgents, and to increased troop strength since an additional 28,500 American forces were sent to Iraq early this year.

These factors also have led to a drop in bombings and other attacks on civilians, Iraqi and American officials say.

Nevertheless, the country remains far from calm. Shiite Muslim clergymen used Friday prayers to condemn bombings this week in the southern city of Amarah that killed 28 people.

In the Shiite stronghold of Sadr Cty, in northeastern Baghdad, Sheik Suhail Uqabi said the blasts in normally quiet Amarah were aimed at provoking violence so that security forces would have an excuse to crack down on the Shiite city.

He urged Iraqi security forces “not to be a sword in the hands of the occupiers,” a reference to U.S. troops.

Uqabi was speaking on behalf of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, who has long urged the ouster of American forces and who accuses them of targeting his followers.

After the sermon, worshipers marched through Sadr City denouncing the Amarah attacks and the U.S. military presence.

Also Friday, Iraqi police said a rocket slammed into Baghdad’s Green Zone, the walled enclave that is home to the U.S. Embassy and most Iraqi and American government offices. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Mortar rounds and rockets occasionally are launched into the Green Zone, though attacks are far less frequent than they were during the summer, when several daily bombardments were normal.

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tina.susman@latimes.com

Special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.