Troop Death Toll Tops 5,000

The two-pronged war reached a grim watershed on Monday. July became the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the combined casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan passed 5,000, USA Today reports. June 2008 was the previous deadliest month in Afghanistan, when 28 died, but because of a roadside bomb that killed four Americans in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. death toll this July is at least 30. To date, there have been 4,332 military deaths in Iraq, 669 in Afghanistan, and 14 defense-department civilian casualties in both countries.