[NYTr] US Loses More Soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Granma Daily - Aug 13, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art05.html

US Losses in Iraq and Afghanistan

BAGHDAD, August 12.— Five more US soldiers died in Iraq in the last 24
hours and the funerals took place Sunday in Diwaniya for two Iraqi
government officials killed the day before along with three bodyguards
in an attack on their convoy, reported AFP.

With the new losses, official military command figures show a total of
3,684 US troops have died in Iraq since the initial invasion in March
2003.

In other fighting over the weekend, six police and an Iraqi soldier
died in resistance actions in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and
Ninive.

PAY TO MERCENARIES

The Pentagon has paid $548 million US during the last three years to
two British security companies that guard the so-called reconstruction
in Iraq, revealed The Washington Post on Sunday.

The figure is "more than $200 million US above the original budget" for
security for the work being carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, notes the newspaper, quoting "previously undisclosed data."

SIX LOSSES IN AFGHANISTAN

KABUL, August 12.— Five NATO soldiers were killed Sunday after an
explosion and rebel attacks in the south and east of Afghanistan.
Another, a British soldier, died Saturday when his vehicle was
destroyed by a bomb in the eastern region. It was also reported that a
local collaborator working as a translator was killed and that several
occupying force troops were wounded, reported ANSA news service.