Reply #9: "There's also concern about the Iraqi death toll, which rose this month." [View All]

Still, July's U.S. death toll is almost twice as high as for the same period last year -- 43 fatalities -- a sign of the persistent violence in the long conflict. The numbers come from a CNN count of Pentagon figures.

There's also concern about the Iraqi death toll, which rose this month. At least 1,653 civilians were killed in July, the Iraqi Interior Ministry told CNN on Tuesday. The number had dipped to 1,227 last month.

At least 79 Iraqi soldiers were killed in July, compared with 31 in June, the Ministry said.

Police found 44 bodies across Baghdad in the last two days, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday. The bodies -- believed to result from Sunni-Shiite sectarian fighting -- bring the number of corpses found in Baghdad in July to 612.