First U.S. soldier dies in November

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. military said on Monday an American soldier has died in Iraq of non-combat related injuries. “The Multi-National Corps-Iraq solider died on November 2. It did not give the cause of death,” the military said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The statement says the name of the soldier is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and that the incident is currently under investigation. The death raises to at least 4,356 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, including 139 have been so far killed in 2009. Ten were killed in September and seven in August, the record monthly lowest number of U.S. deaths since 2003. July 2009, which saw U.S. combat troops pulling out of Iraqi cities, registered eight deaths. U.S. fatalities began to decrease since the beginning of 2009: sixteen soldiers were killed in January, 17 in February and nine in March. The death toll, however, grew in April to reach 19 and then to 25 in May, including five shot down by a fellow soldier in a shooting incident inside a camp near the Baghdad International Airport. Fifteen were killed in June, including five in “non-combat” incidents. Some 486 U.S. soldiers were killed in 2003, 849 in 2004, 846 in 2005, 822 in 2006 and a record high of 904 in 2007. The toll went down dramatically in 2008 to reach 314. Still, November 2004, the month that saw fierce clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen in the restive city of al-Falluja, Diala province, is the month with the highest U.S. deaths: 137. SH (S)/SR 1