The US military announced today the deaths of six more soldiers in Iraq.
Five of the soldiers died yesterday, while another was killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Tikrit, 110 miles north of Baghdad.
The deaths came hours after President Bush predicted a bloody summer lay ahead.
US Marines gather more flags yesterday to place at Arlington National Cemetery gravestones ahead of Memorial Day on May 28. Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed
Elsewhere, insurgents defied the weekly Friday curfew in Baghdad to detonate bombs under a bridge linking two Sunni districts in the west of the capital, police said. The bridge over a roadway was still standing but had been badly damaged.
Insurgents have launched a series of attacks against Baghdad bridges in the past month. The historic Sarafiya bridge over the Tigris River was destroyed in April.
US military has deployed thousands of extra troops around Baghdad and other areas in a last-ditch attempt to combat fighting in Iraq between majority Shias and Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein.
The crackdown is an attempt to buy time for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to meet political benchmarks set by Washington, including a revenue-sharing oil law, aimed at promoting national reconciliation.