Iraq

Toll grows among citizen soldiers

WASHINGTON - Citizen soldiers of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve are suffering an increasing share of American military deaths in Iraq, according to Pentagon statistics.

Of the 39 deaths in December for which the Pentagon has released the victim's name, 10 - or about 26 percent - were citizen soldiers, according to an Associated Press review of Pentagon reports. That is up from 14 percent in November, the deadliest month of the war with 81 American deaths.

Since the start of hostilities last March, 14 percent of all U.S. military deaths have been members of the Army Guard or Reserve. The Army says it has had 68 reservists killed so far, compared with nine among the Marines, two in the Navy and one in the Air Force.

It's too early to know whether December's proportional increase in deaths among citizen soldiers was the start of a trend, but some analysts say the jump is troublesome, even if it proves temporary.

"It's one more strain on the reserve" component of the military, said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, a private think tank. "We are living a gamble to keep the reserve component intact."

Of the approximately 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about a fourth are reservists.

When the force rotates out this winter and spring, to be replaced by a smaller contingent, the proportion of reservists will jump to nearly 40 percent.

The AP survey also determined that 14 of the 478 soldiers that have died in Iraq were from Florida. California has lost 52.

MOSUL, Iraq - American troops in northern Iraq fired mortars and missiles late Wednesday to welcome the New Year, while celebrating Iraqis in Baghdad sent tracer bullets flashing across Baghdad's sky.

But even as 2004 was met by a festive mood at U.S. bases, many American soldiers patrolled cities on high alert amid fears that insurgents were planning attacks similar to those staged Christmas Day in Baghdad.

Those fears were realized when a car bomb ripped through a central Baghdad restaurant, killing five Iraqis.

It was a champagne-free holiday for the 130,000 American soldiers in Iraq, with the Army's 101st Airborne Division in the northern city of Mosul breaking out sparkling grape juice and alcohol-free beer for the few soldiers in the partying mood.

New Year's was a bittersweet milestone for the division, based in a former Saddam Hussein palace. The 101st Airborne is expected to depart northern Iraq by the end of February for its base at Fort Campbell, Ky.

"I just had a newborn and I've only seen two months of her life," said Sgt. Torri Griffith, 24, of New Orleans. "I'm anxious to get back."

A few soldiers planned to ring in 2004 at a dance, while others planned to play cards or video games, or go to bed early before Thursday morning duty.

At the Army's 4th Infantry Division headquarters in Tikrit, salsa and rock groups performed at the base in another of Hussein's sprawling palace complexes. Soldiers toasted the new year with nonalcoholic beer.

A soldier from a mortar crew set up near the bank of the muddy Tigris River said he and his comrades planned to launch thunderous illuminating rounds that leave glowing red trails in the sky at midnight.

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