1954

Yesterday, a suicide bomber drove his car toward a U.S-Iraqi checkpoint at an entrance to the Green Zone — the most fortified sector of Baghdad, where government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located behind a maze of blast walls and checkpoints.

Iraqi police opened fire on the car as it approached. The car, packed with 11 mortar rounds and 60 pounds of explosives, then detonated, Sgt. 1st Class David Abrams said.

A U.S. soldier, three Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi civilians were killed in the blast, Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

The American death brought to 1,954 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Other coalition deaths:

The British military has reported 96 deaths; Italy, 26; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Thailand and the Netherlands, two each; and Hungary, Kazakhstan and Latvia one death each.

Iraqi civilian deaths:

Unofficial estimates range from at least 10,000 to about 100,000. Why such a wide range? This could have to do with the U.S. military attitude:

"We don't do body counts" ~U.S. General Tommy Franks

A British website does. Please link to http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Tuesday death report:

Insurgent attacks Tuesday killed at least 54 people, the highest death toll since Sept. 29, when three car bombs exploded simultaneously in the mainly Shiite town of Balad, north of Baghdad, killing at least 102 people.