PAYING RESPECT --- A U.S. Marine with the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment pays his final respects during a memorial service for Sgt. Byron W. Norwood and Lance Cpl. Abraham Simpson at a base near the war-torn Iraqi city of Fallujah, Dec. 13. The U.S. death toll rose when anti-American insurgents used suicide bombings and a wide range of other attacks on military troops.

REUTERS