Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    WASHINGTON, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A Pentagon official denied on Wednesday that the surge of U.S. casualties in Iraq in April reflected deteriorated security in the Middle East country.

    "While it is sad to see an increase in casualties, I don't think it is necessarily indicative of a major change in the operating environment," Lt Gen. Carter Ham, Joint Staff director for operations, told a Pentagon news conference.

    The killings of five U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday drove the number of the American death toll in April to 49, making it the deadliest month since September.

    The surge of the U.S. military death came with an increasingly intense conflicts between Shiite militants and U.S.- Iraq forces in Sadr City, among other areas.

    Ham admitted that as the fighting continues, the casualty number is expected to go up but he said that it did not mean the general conditions had worsened.

    The total number of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 reached at least 4,061.

    On the other hand, the official statistics show that Iraqi deaths in April reached at least 1,073, slightly down from the 1,082 in March but sharply up from the previous six months.

    Ham also raised a new accusation that Iran was behind Taliban in Afghanistan, saying the U.S. military had evidence that Iranian government was continuing to send weapons and material to the Taliban.

    Washington has charged Iran with pursuing nuclear weapons in disguise of nuclear energy program and also fueling the violence in Iraq by supporting Shiite militias, both of which were denied by Tehran.