Bombs Becoming Biggest Killers in Iraq

[tocqueville]

By ROBERT H. REID and JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs like the titanic roadside blast that killed 14 Marines last week are becoming the biggest killers of U.S. troops in Iraq, surpassing bullets, rockets and mortars, as insurgents wage an unconventional war that has boosted the American death toll beyond 1,820.

This isn't a conflict like the World Wars or Vietnam, where waves of enemy ground troops backed by artillery attacked American firebases. Gone too are the intense street battles waged last year in cities like Najaf, Karbala and Fallujah, or in Nasiriyah during the 2003 invasion.

Americans still die in mortar strikes and gunfights, like the six Marine snipers killed Aug. 1 in a rebel ambush. But surprise blasts — when the road erupts without warning or an explosives-packed car disintegrates into a fireball — have become the hallmarks of the Iraq war

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