Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac 2008

As of Independence Day 2007, more than 3,500 Americans had died in Iraq since the war began in 2003. That’s two per day, a rate that has increased with the “surge” of 30,000 US troops into Baghdad that began early in 2006. The number of US casualties increased since the buildup began, as Pres. George W. Bush predicted they would. So has the frequency of grievous single days when multiple service members were killed. One such day was 16 April 2007: six Americans died in Iraq on that day. Here are the stories of five of them.