As the world turns, the reality continues in Iraq

100,000 Iraqi civilians have been displaced over the last two months as a result of sectarian violence:

An Iraqi vice president said on Friday 100,000 families -- perhaps somehalf a million people -- are living as refugees because of sectarianviolence wracking the country. Adel Abdul Mahdi gave no sourcefor his estimate, which is much higher than the 11,000 families -- orabout 60,000 people -- which the Displacement and Migration Ministrysaid two weeks ago had fled their homes since late February.

As May rolls around, April has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces so far this year:

The U.S. soldier died about 7:15 p.m. Thursday when his vehicle washit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, the military said. Thatbrought the American death toll for the month to at least 67, accordingto an Associated Press count.

April's death toll is the highest monthly figure so far this year.Last month, 31 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, the lowest monthly tollsince February 2004. At least 2,397 members of the U.S. military havedied since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to the AP count.

Just outside Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. forces raideda house where Hamid al-Takhi, the local al-Qaida in Iraq leader, andthe two other insurgents were hiding, the military said in a statement.

Al-Takhi, known as the "emir" of Samarra, was gunned down whilefleeing the house, and the other two militants were killed while tryingto defend it with grenades, the U.S. military said. After they werekilled, the U.S. troops found a car parked nearby containing a grenadelauncher, rockets, AK-47s, grenades and a shotgun, the U.S. militarysaid.

Even though both the civil war and U.S. deaths are important, a situation has broken out in Nothern Iraq that is extremely critical from a geopolitical standpoint.