From the New York Times:
Attacks on American-led forces using a lethal type of roadside bomb said to be supplied by Iran reached a new high in July, according to the American military.
The devices, known as explosively formed penetrators, were used to carry out 99 attacks last month and accounted for a third of the combat deaths suffered by the American-led forces, according to American military officials.
“July was an all-time high,” Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said in an interview, referring to strikes with such devices.
Such bombs, which fire a semi-molten copper slug that can penetrate the armor on a Humvee and are among the deadliest weapons used against American forces, are used almost exclusively by Shiite militants. American intelligence officials have presented evidence that the weapons come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, although Tehran has repeatedly denied providing lethal assistance to Iraqi groups.
There's an old rule among compensation professionals: Whatever gets rewarded, gets repeated.
The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, recently met with his Iranian counterpart for the third time. Ambassador Crocker is by all accounts a skilled, smart and courageous diplomat, but meeting with Tehran's representative while Tehran arranges for the death of Americans strikes me as exactly the sort of "reward" that will assure an increase in attacks on our troops.
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