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| Friday, 16 January 2004 |
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Suicides of US troops rising in Iraq - Pentagon WASHINGTON, Thursday (Reuters,AFP) At least 21 U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, a growing toll that represents one of every seven American "non-hostile" deaths since the war began last March, the Pentagon said. "Fighting this kind of war is clearly going to be stressful for some people," Assistant Defense Secretary for Health Affairs Dr. William Winkenwerder told reporters in an interview. He said the military was taking steps to prevent suicides, ascribed by one defense analyst to a perception among young soldiers that the U.S. force in Iraq was spread thin and faced an endless task. "What you're really talking about here more than anything else is the perception that the future just looks indefinite and there are not enough troops coming in. It can look awfully bleak for an awful long time," said Ken Allard, a retired Army colonel who now works with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. Winkenwerder said that of 21 confirmed suicides during the past year associated with the war in Iraq, 18 were in the Army d three others in the Navy and Marine Corps. The suicide toll is probably higher than 21 because some "non-hostile" deaths are still being investigated, he added. A total of 496 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since the war began last March, 343 of them in combat and 153 in non- stile incidents ranging from accidents to suicide, according to the Pentagon. The 21 suicides represent nearly 14 percent of non-hostile deaths reported by the military, an increase over the proportion of 11 percent as of three months ago when the suicide number totaled 13. Winkenwerder added that that nearly 400 troops had been evacuated from Iraq for stress-related problems. Winkenwerder suggested that the Army had become more aware of stress after several domestic murders involving soldiers who returned to their base in North Carolina from Afghanistan in 2002. Authorities say four soldiers at Fort Bragg killed their wives in June and July of 2002. Three of the cases involved Special Operations soldiers returning from Afghanistan. Two of e soldiers committed suicide and the other two were charged with murder. A fifth case involved a Special Forces major who was killed, with his wife charged with murder. Meanwhile a car bomb exploded outside a police station in the violence-hit Iraqi town of Baquba Wednesday, killing at least two, and the US army announced the capture of another former Iraqi official on its "most wanted" list. Also Wednesday, US Marines joined the flow of forces headed to Iraq with the departure of the Navy helicopter carrier USS Boxer loaded with equipment for a marine-air ground task force that will relieve army troops in a massive troop rotation. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US-led coalition in Iraq, said US troops had captured Khamis Sarhan al-Mohammad, a leading figure in Saddam's Baath party. Mohammad, with a million-dollar reward on his head, was captured by US Special Forces and 82nd Airborne troops on Sunday near the western town of Ramadi in the so-called "Sunni-triangle" of anti-coalition resistance. Kimmitt described Mohammad, the Baath chairman in the southern city of Karbala, as "an enabler for many of the attacks against Iraqis and coalition forces," and hailed the capture as "another significant step in reducing anti-coalition resistance". The arrest leaves 13 "most wanted" still at large. Earlier Wednesday, infantry-backed US military police raided Samarra in a pre-dawn operation that netted four nephews of Iraq's former number two, Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the most wanted of Saddam Hussein's lieutenants. Stateside, as the USS Boxer steamed out of the southern California port of San Diego with 200 marines and 900 sailors aboard, a second chopper carrier, the USS Bataan, prepared to deploy for Iraq on Monday from Norfolk, Virginia, with a battalion from the 2nd Marine Division, a communications battalion and a medium helicopter squadron and a light attack helicopter squadron, the navy said. Also deploying from Norfolk next week will be the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, accompanied by a guided missile cruiser, a guided missile destroyer and a supply ship. About 25,000 Marines will be deploying to Iraq this year in two seven-month-long rotations, the military said. |
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