US wounded in Falluja hits 412
More than 70 US soldiers, most of them injured in Falluja, have been flown from Iraq to a military hospital in Germany.
A C-141 transport plane brought the 73 newest patients to the US Air Force’s Ramstein base on Saturday morning.
The 73 new patients at the US military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre pushed the number of arrivals this week to 412, nearly all of whom were injured in Falluja, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Military officials could not provide an exact breakdown on the number of wounded from Falluja or the nature of their injuries.
Bed capacity at the hospital in rural western Germany has been increased to handle the influx.
Landstuhl is the biggest US military hospital overseas, and its doctors also handle soldiers with injuries and illnesses not related to combat.
It usually treats between 30 and 50 injured military personnel a day. US and Iraqi forces launched a ground assault on Falluja late on Monday.