300 or 400 Killed

That's mind-boggling. 300 (maybe 400) killed. And 17 of our kids are dead in the first week of August alone. Some Iraq we're building.

U.S. marines clash with Iraqi militia

U.S. marines say they have killed 300 fighters loyal to a firebrand Iraqi Shi'ite cleric in fierce clashes that pose a stern test for an interim government struggling to stamp its authority over the country.

The fresh fighting marks a major challenge for U.S.-backed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and appears to have destroyed a two-month-old ceasefire between U.S. forces and Sadr's Mehdi militia.

"The number of enemy casualties is 300 KIA (killed in action)," Lieutenant Colonel Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said at a military base near the city, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

The U.S.-appointed governor of Najaf put the militia death toll at 400, with 1,000 captured. He said he had information 80 Iranians were fighting alongside Sadr's militia, whom he ordered to leave the city in 24 hours.