Humvee deaths on the rise

There is not much of an explanation for the increased numbers in the USA Today's article:

WASHINGTON — Although the Pentagon has strengthened the armor on more than 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year, Pentagon records show.
Most are dying in their Humvees, the workhorse vehicles the military scrambled to armor as the use of improvised explosive devices grew over the past three years.

Pentagon casualty reports say 67 U.S. troops have died this year in attacks on their Humvees involving the so-called IEDs. An additional 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers.

That's up from 27 in Humvees — and an additional 38 deaths involving IED attacks on other vehicles — during the first four months of 2005, according to Pentagon reports and USA TODAY's Iraq war casualty database.

The Pentagon reports did not say whether the Humvees were seeing more action and therefore more likely to be attacked. Military leaders and elected officials such as Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., wanted the added armor to better protect the troops from the IEDs.

The New York Daily News reports a sad end to two young lives:

Army Sgt. Jose Gomez, 23, of Queens, was killed Friday after a roadside bomb struck his Humvee during a combat operation in Baghdad, Defense Department officials said.

His fiancée, Analaura Esparza Gutierrez, an Army private who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, met the same fate in October 2003 - just as Gomez was winding down his first tour of duty.