Bigger and Blacker

While Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove are doing their best Baghdad Bob and Great Oz impressions, the war that we aren't losing and the insurgency that is in its last throesare yieldingbigger and more damaging bombs.

"A suicide car bomber slammed into a 7-ton U.S. military vehicle in Fallujah, killing five Marines and a Navy sailor, Marine Corps sources told NBC News, adding that at least three of the dead were female Marines and that 13 others were wounded.

A review of casualty records indicates the attack is the single deadliest toll for female servicemembers in Iraq. Since the war started, 44 servicewomen have died in attacks or in accidents while in Iraq.

The vehicle, which had 19 people on board, was ferrying members of a U.S. military civil affairs team headed to perform checkpoint searches of female Iraqi civilians when it was attacked Thursday night, the sources said.

The official Marine Corps statement said at least two Marines were killed, and indicated that four more had died as well.

'Three Marines and a sailor believed to be in the vehicle are currently listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown pending a positive identification' of the bodies, the statement said."