Marines in Iraq Have Heavy Casualty Rate(AP)

WASHINGTON - The Marines have one of the roughest assignments in
Iraq: pacifying the perpetually restive Anbar province, home to Fallujah, Ramadi and Haditha, all sites of heavy American casualties since the insurgency went into high gear last year.

Underscoring the heavy load, the Marines have taken casualties disproportionate to their numbers in Iraq.

Marines number more than 23,000 out of 138,000 members of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq, or 17 percent. Yet they have lost at least 530 of the more than 1,820 U.S. personnel who have died there, or 29 percent, Marine officials said.

AP Photo: U.S. Marines from Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment from Ohio, watch news...

Semper Fi