U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Snead from Falls Church, Va., allows an Iraqi soldier to peer through his weapon scope during a joint patrol in Mosul on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – October marked the first month since the battle for Baghdad in April 2003 in which no U.S. service member has died in combat in the Iraqi capital.  Pentagon statistics also show the overall death toll for the month matched the lowest monthly total of the war.
 
Thirteen deaths were reported during October, eight of them in combat. The figures exactly match those of last July and reflect a continuing downward trend that began around Sept. 2007.
 
October 2007 saw 38 deaths reported (29 combat); in October 2006 there were 106 U.S. deaths (99 combat) and in October 2005 there were 96 (77 combat).
 
The figures for last month also show for first time since U.S. forces attacked Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime that no U.S. combat deaths were reported in the city.
 
One American soldier did die in Baghdad on Oct. 14, of gunshot wounds sustained during a patrol some 30 miles from the city. Two other reported Baghdad deaths were “non-hostile.”
 
The continuing drop in American fatalities have been attributed to a number of factors, beginning with the troop “surge” first announced by President Bush in January 2007 and implemented over the following months.
 
Other factors frequently cited include the Sunni “awakening” in Anbar province and important victories against the Shia Mahdi Army in the southern city of Basra last spring.
 
The surge was supported by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain – who had recommended the strategy before Bush announced it – but opposed by his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.
 
Obama did concede in a Fox News interview last September that the surge had “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,” but also said the Iraqis had had not taken responsibility for their country.


Map showing the 13 Iraqi provinces where the U.S. military has handed over authority to the Iraqis. The remaining five are Baghdad, Salah-a-Din, Kirkuk, Diyala and Ninawa.
On his campaign Web site, Obama says that “despite the improved security situation, the Iraqi government has not stepped forward to lead the Iraqi people and to reach the genuine political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.”
 
As of last week, the U.S. military has turned over to Iraqi officials authority for 13 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.
 
The process began in July 2006, when Muthanna in the south became the first province to have authority transferred. That was followed by Dhi Qar (Sept. 2006), An Najaf (Dec. 2006), Maysan (Apr. 2007), Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Dahuk (May 2007), Karbala (Oct. 2007), Basra (Dec. 2007), Qadisiyyah (Jul. 2008), Anbar (Sept. 2008), and Wasit and Babil (Oct. 2008).
 
The remaining five provinces are Baghdad, Salah-a-Din, Kirkuk, Diyala and Ninawa.
 
Meanwhile, the Pentagon reported 15 combat deaths in Afghanistan during October, the lowest in five months although still high compared to previous Octobers (seven in 2007, nine in 2006, three in 2005.)
 
With a few exceptions (notably in June 2005, when 25 deaths were recorded, 16 of them in a single incident when their helicopter was shot down; and the May-August 2007 period, with between 10 and 13 deaths each month), U.S. monthly combat deaths in Afghanistan were in single figures from 2001 until they began picking up in May of this year, when 14 Americans were killed.
 
The ensuing months saw 23 hostile deaths in June, 16 in July, 17 in August and 26 in September.