In fact, given the nature of the operation, coalition casualties have been light. (In a battle for Nasiriya with the Ottomans in 1915, the overconfident British, whose supply lines were also stretched thin, lost 500 men.) Iraq has suffered an unknown but far higher number of combat casualties: several hundred Iraqis were reportedly killed in an engagement at Najaf on March 25th-26th.
The attack in Najaf and an earlier incident Saturday near Basra appeared to validate Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan's two-month-old threat of suicide bombings.