1st Armored Division

As of Thursday, at least 2,557 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003. Identifications Lance Cpl. Geofrey R. Cayer, 20, Fitchburg, Mass.; died Tuesday in Anbar province during a nonhostile incident; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Sgt. Mark R. Vecchione, 25, Tucson, Ariz.; died Tuesday in Ramadi when an explosive detonated near his vehicle; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Germany.

As of Thursday, at least 2,557 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003. Identifications Lance Cpl. Geofrey R. Cayer, 20, Fitchburg, Mass.; died Tuesday in Anbar province during a nonhostile incident; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. Sgt. Mark R. Vecchione, 25, Tucson, Ariz.; died Tuesday in Ramadi when an explosive detonated near his vehicle; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Germany.

WASHINGTON - About 21,000 combat-hardened Army troops stationed in Iraq for the past year will remain there for three to four more months to fight the insurgency, the Pentagon is expected to announce this week, defense officials said yesterday. Most of the soldiers will come from the 1st Armored Division, based in Germany; about 3,000 others are assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Polk, La. As a result, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will remain at about 134,000 through the summer, rather than decline as scheduled to 110,000 next month.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. Army arrested six Iraqi men yesterday on suspicion of involvement in the downing of a civilian helicopter Thursday that left 11 people dead. Acting on tips from residents, soldiers from the 1st Armored Division raided a village near Taji, northwest of Baghdad, the capital. In addition to the six suspects, they also confiscated bomb-making material. The arrests were a rare bright spot for U.S. and Iraqi forces after more than a week of surging rebel violence. Multiple insurgent attacks around the country yesterday killed at least 10 Iraqis and injured more than 20 others, and the military announced the death of a U.S. soldier.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- 1om U.S. combat units positioned near the Kuwaiti border may be several weeks away from receiving all their equipment and completing final rehearsals for a massive land assault against Iraq, according to military personnel.The 3rd Armored Division, the last major unit to be deployed to Saudi Arabia, has barely one-third of its heavy armor and attack helicopters ready for action.Another German-based Army unit, the 1st Armored Division, was not expected to receive its Bradley fighting vehicles and other combat equipment until this weekend at the earliest.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The remains of two U.S. soldiers apparently kidnapped last week were discovered yesterday north of Baghdad, ending an extensive search for the missing men. Military officials did not provide details on how or when the vanished soldiers died. They were identified as Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Roselle, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio. Coalition forces involved in the search had hinted Friday that the pair might already be dead, saying would-be rescuers, acting on a tip, had arrived "too late" at a compound where the men appeared to have been held.

WITH THE U.S. ARMY VII CORPS IN IRAQ -- From the air over the scrub-covered Iraqi desert, the scene yesterday was one of both majesty and utter menace: more than 100,000 U.S. fighting men and their machines stretching from the border of Saudi Arabia north into the dusty horizon, deep into the core of enemy territory.Officers described this huge convoy as the single largest U.S. troop movement since World War II.Everywhere, desert sands that had been marked until Sunday only with the hoofprints of camels and the footprints of their Bedouin masters had become a frantic thoroughfare for the day-old northward push of troops, weapons and equipment of the Army's VII Corps.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. Army arrested six Iraqi men yesterday on suspicion of involvement in the downing of a civilian helicopter Thursday that left 11 people dead. Acting on tips from residents, soldiers from the 1st Armored Division raided a village near Taji, northwest of Baghdad, the capital. In addition to the six suspects, they also confiscated bomb-making material. The arrests were a rare bright spot for U.S. and Iraqi forces after more than a week of surging rebel violence. Multiple insurgent attacks around the country yesterday killed at least 10 Iraqis and injured more than 20 others, and the military announced the death of a U.S. soldier.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier and his Iraqi interpreter were killed yesterday when gunmen ambushed their two-vehicle convoy with explosives and automatic weapons in a Baghdad neighborhood where there have been at least four other attacks in recent weeks. Three other soldiers were wounded in the incident, one of them shot in the neck, said soldiers who arrived on the scene after the ambush. All were members of a civil affairs detachment assigned to the Army's 1st Armored Division, soldiers said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A cease-fire between American forces and insurgents loyal to a rebel cleric appeared to be unraveling as fighting erupted yesterday and early today in the centers of the cities of Najaf and Kufa. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and two others were injured in separate engagements ,the military said today. Two of the soldiers were killed yesterday near Kufa, where insurgents loyal to the 31-year-old radical cleric Motqada al-Sadr have clashed with U.S. troops. One soldier died when attackers ambushed a patrol while the other was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his tank.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A cease-fire between American forces and insurgents loyal to a rebel cleric appeared to be unraveling as fighting erupted yesterday and early today in the centers of the cities of Najaf and Kufa. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and two others were injured in separate engagements ,the military said today. Two of the soldiers were killed yesterday near Kufa, where insurgents loyal to the 31-year-old radical cleric Motqada al-Sadr have clashed with U.S. troops. One soldier died when attackers ambushed a patrol while the other was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his tank.

WASHINGTON - About 21,000 combat-hardened Army troops stationed in Iraq for the past year will remain there for three to four more months to fight the insurgency, the Pentagon is expected to announce this week, defense officials said yesterday. Most of the soldiers will come from the 1st Armored Division, based in Germany; about 3,000 others are assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Polk, La. As a result, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will remain at about 134,000 through the summer, rather than decline as scheduled to 110,000 next month.

WASHINGTON - When his two sons left for the war in Iraq, Chuck Norman worried more about Chris, a 24-year-old Marine Reservist who was part of the first wave of attack. His other son, Bobby, 21, rolled in with the Army's 1st Armored Division after Baghdad fell and the Iraqi army was melting away. Yet it was Chris who returned safely home last fall, while Bobby died Nov. 22 at Baghdad International Airport, not under enemy fire but in a nighttime traffic accident involving his Humvee and an Army M-1 tank.

Attacks against American soldiers in Iraq have been on the rise in the past three weeks, going from a daily average of 20 up to 25. One day, 35 attacks were reported. "The enemy has evolved, a little bit more lethal, a little bit more complex, a little bit more sophisticated," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said last week. "As long as we are here, the coalition needs to be prepared to take casualties." Since March, 345 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, 223 of them from hostile fire.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier and his Iraqi interpreter were killed yesterday when gunmen ambushed their two-vehicle convoy with explosives and automatic weapons in a Baghdad neighborhood where there have been at least four other attacks in recent weeks. Three other soldiers were wounded in the incident, one of them shot in the neck, said soldiers who arrived on the scene after the ambush. All were members of a civil affairs detachment assigned to the Army's 1st Armored Division, soldiers said.

RICHMOND, Va. - The war is over. Or so people have told him, yelling out car windows - Don't you read the paper? - as they drive past his sign. Of course, if the war were over, Larry Syverson wouldn't be out there in the first place. He could spend his lunch hours sitting in an air-conditioned restaurant instead of standing on the sidewalk in front of the federal courthouse in the midday heat. He could stop fearing the crunch of an unfamiliar car on his gravel driveway, followed by the knock of a stranger with news about his sons.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A sniper shot and killed a U.S. soldier on patrol in a northwestern neighborhood of the Iraqi capital on Monday night, the 11th serviceman to die in a series of guerrilla assaults against U.S. forces in the past three weeks. Military officials said the soldier, a member of the 1st Armored Division, had been sitting in his vehicle just before midnight when he was struck in the back by a small-caliber bullet. He was rushed to a battalion aid station, where he died from the wound.

Attacks against American soldiers in Iraq have been on the rise in the past three weeks, going from a daily average of 20 up to 25. One day, 35 attacks were reported. "The enemy has evolved, a little bit more lethal, a little bit more complex, a little bit more sophisticated," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said last week. "As long as we are here, the coalition needs to be prepared to take casualties." Since March, 345 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, 223 of them from hostile fire.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The remains of two U.S. soldiers apparently kidnapped last week were discovered yesterday north of Baghdad, ending an extensive search for the missing men. Military officials did not provide details on how or when the vanished soldiers died. They were identified as Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Roselle, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio. Coalition forces involved in the search had hinted Friday that the pair might already be dead, saying would-be rescuers, acting on a tip, had arrived "too late" at a compound where the men appeared to have been held.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At the Liberation Gasoline Station in the southern part of the city, people were arguing in the shimmering heat. Police and Ministry of Oil officials were jumping to the front of the long, slow-moving lines, or demanding extra rations of gasoline or propane, enraging drivers who had waited impatiently for hours. There was shouting, pushing, shoving and slapping. Then an Abrams tank from the 1st Armored Division's 135th Battalion rolled in, trailing clouds of brown dust and coughing diesel exhaust.