U.S. deaths in Iraq remain at 20-month low - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

U.S. deaths in Iraq remain at 20-month low

BAGHDAD — The number of U.S. troops killed in November remained at a low not seen since March 2006 on Thursday.

The U.S. military said that an American soldier had been killed by small-arms fire on Wednesday in Baghdad, bringing the number of troops killed in Iraq to 35 for the month so far. In May, as the influx of troops gained momentum, 126 Americans died.

During that six-month period, streets that had been closed during the sectarian fighting have reopened with strict limits: Checkpoints, roadblocks, concrete blast walls, and American and Iraqi patrols are still the norm in many parts of the capital.

But some of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who fled their homeland for neighboring Syria and Jordan and beyond are returning — with money, transport and protection from their government. The program also seeks to win favor from neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan that are struggling with an estimated 2.2 million Iraqi refugees.

Late Wednesday, about 20 buses carrying hundreds of Iraqi refugees rolled into a Baghdad depot — the first from the Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families. National Security Minister Sherwan al-Waili, who met the convoy, said each returning family would receive $750 to get started rebuilding their lives.

“The returning home of displaced families is considered as a great victory for law enforcement and national reconciliation,” military spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. “We didn’t ask any family about his sect or ethnicity. Such things were created by terrorism and will disappear along with terrorism.”

DISCUSS: The latest from Iraq