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Originally published in The Baltimore Sun January 13, 2005

Copyright 2005 The Baltimore Sun Company

Blast injuries killed 486, bullets 310, accidents 225 U.S. troops since 2003

By: Tom Bowman, SUN NATIONAL STAFF

WASHINGTON - Blast injuries from roadside and car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars account for more than half the U.S. combat deaths in Iraq, according to a new Pentagon analysis.

Of the 951 combat deaths from the start of the war in March 2003 through the end of November, 486 were caused by blast injuries and 310 by bullets, according to the report by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, a Pentagon agency charged with investigating deaths during military operations.

The causes of the remainder of the combat deaths include 89 "blunt force" injuries and 66 labeled "other," everything from burns and asphyxia to electrocution and drowning.

The report, obtained by The Sun, comes as roadside bombs used by insurgents are becoming more powerful, with blasts during the past week destroying two heavily armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles and killing nine American soldiers.

Chris Kelly, a spokesman for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, said: "That report was an internal report done to track Operation Iraqi Freedom death statistics, and it speaks for itself."

A Pentagon task force is looking at ways to guard against insurgent blast attacks, by using technology that will pinpoint concealed bombs or the location of mortars firing at U.S. bases, and by devising better armor.

The use of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, has grown steadily since June 2003, often accounting for most of the combat deaths each month, according to the report.

Since September, the analysis showed, vehicle bombs have become an increasing problem.

"We've noticed in the recent couple of weeks that the IEDs are all being built more powerfully, with more explosive effort in a smaller number of IEDs," Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, deputy director for regional operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon last week.

Rodriguez said the roadside bomb challenge "is not purely going to be met with armored vehicles," noting that at least one Abrams tank, "the most heavily armored vehicle in the world," had been lost to one.

"The response and the way we're going to overcome that is a multipronged effort on tactics, techniques, procedures, intelligence and a wide range of things to prevent that from hurting our soldiers," he said.

A senior Army official who requested anonymity said the Pentagon task force, while focusing on IEDs, is also looking into ways to counter insurgent mortar and rocket fire striking U.S. bases in Iraq, particularly in the Sunni Triangle.

John Pike, an analyst for GlobalSecurity.org, which focuses on emerging security challenges, said it is not surprising that insurgents are resorting to explosives. "How else are they going to get at us?" he asked. "They're not much in the way of stand-up firefights."

Pike said the recent reliance on more powerful bombs might be a response to stepped-up armoring of U.S. Humvees and trucks. He noted that the Pentagon has sent a number of sophisticated jamming devices to Iraq designed to interrupt electronic signals that detonate bombs.

The mortality report showed that most combat deaths, 347, were caused by head and neck wounds, 339 by multiple injuries and 214 by wounds to the torso.

The report found that the typical U.S. service member killed was a single, white, 26-year-old, male, active-duty soldier or Marine, with a rank between corporal and staff sergeant. All but 39 of the 1,257 American troops who died from combat or noncombat injuries during the period were in the Army or Marine Corps. Twenty-four were in the Navy, 14 in the Air Force and one in the Coast Guard.

Of the 306 noncombat deaths, 225 were caused by accidents, mostly involving vehicles, in particular, Humvees. Forty were attributed to suicide, 27 to natural causes, and two were homicides. Five deaths were due to undetermined causes, and results were pending on seven others, the report said.

Of the combat and noncombat dead, 75 percent of those killed were white, 12 percent African-American, 7 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian-Pacific Islander and 3 percent unknown or other.

In 2001, according to the most-recent available Pentagon statistics, the Army was 55 percent white, 29 percent black and 10 percent Hispanic. The Marine Corps was 66 percent white, 16 percent black and 14 percent Hispanic.

Fifty-six percent of those killed were soldiers with a rank of corporal to staff sergeant; 78 percent were on active duty, and 22 percent were in the National Guard or Reserves.

The percentage of reservists in the U.S. force in Iraq has risen, and they now account for about 40 percent of the troops. The percentage is expected to grow, before dropping next year with the next rotation of troops, officials said.