WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- Seventy-eight troops have been killed and 520 wounded in the last two weeks of fighting in Iraq, according to a senior U.S. Army official.
Counting other forces and civilians contractors -- who drive in convoys that have been under heavy attack -- the casualty toll is even higher: 86 killed in action and 561 wounded between April 1 and April 12, according to Lt. Gen. Richard Cody, Army deputy chief of staff for operations. The Army has suffered 41 deaths and 297 wounded.
The two weeks marks the bloodiest period in Iraq for American forces since the three-week war ended last year.
Cody declined to specify how many Iraqi fighters and civilians have been killed, although he receives daily reports on those numbers. Of the enemy, he said "many times more" have been killed.
In Baghdad Monday, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that about 700 Iraqis had been killed in the fighting.
