U.S. Troops Dying at Rate of Over 1 a Day

The depth and effectiveness of the insurgency is difficult to measure with only statistics, which tend to fluctuate over time. It appeared a few weeks ago that many U.S. commanders had hoped the dropoff in guerrilla action would usher in a less violent period for U.S. troops.

That has not happened.

In an eight-day span, Jan. 9 to Jan. 16, only three American soldiers died, and two from nonhostile causes.

But in the two weeks after that, 26 died - all but three in hostile action.

L. Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, said Tuesday he still believes security has improved.

"I think the situation has improved importantly since the capture of Saddam Hussein," he said.

In the four weeks after Saddam's capture, the number of insurgent attacks against American troops throughout Iraq did fall to an average of 18 per day from 23 per day in the preceding four weeks.

But on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations for the U.S. military in Baghdad, told reporters that the daily average had climbed back to 23 in the past week.

Attacks against Iraqis also are on the rise, although it is not clear that all those are related directly to the insurgency. The two near-simultaneous suicide bombings in the northern city of Irbil on Sunday, for example, killed 101 people, U.S. military officials said Tuesday, including top Kurdish political figures.