Freedom on the March

From Salon.com's Tim Grieve:

We're not sure whether this is "progress," "turning the corner" or just part of the "strategy for victory," but a top U.S. military official reports that the number of attacks on civilians in Iraq over the last 10 weeks is about 80 percent higher than it was late last year.

The rate of U.S. deaths in Iraq is also on the rise after several months of decline. Seventy-six Americans were killed in Iraq in April, and 32 have died already this month. Four U.S. Marines were killed yesterday when their tank rolled off a bridge and into a canal west of Baghdad, taking the total U.S. death toll in Iraq to 2,436.

An Iraqi Shi'ite woman screams during the funeral of her son who was killed in Sadr city in Baghdad May 13, 2006. A funeral was held in Sadr city slum for five members of the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who were killed on Friday in the mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. Witnesses said that unknown people slaughtered the five members of the Mehdi army in Baquba. (REUTERS/Kareem Raheem)

An Iraqi weeps as he carries a coffin of a relative in Baghdad's poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. (AFP/Wissam Al-Okaili)