41% Increase in Iraqi deaths "not anything significant"

They bury their heads in the sand and pretend no one can see their butts once again:

As the White House stood firm in its commitment to a troop surge in the Iraq war, statistics released this week show a key indicator of progress in Iraq trending in the wrong direction.

Insurgent death squads dumped 234 bodies around Baghdad in the first 11 days of May, a 41 percent increase from the 137 bodies dumped around the capital during the first 11 days of April, The Observer of London reported Sunday.

Addressing reporters Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said there was "concern" about the rise in death-squad activity, but he maintained "the longer-term trends ... still generally are down and considerably so."

Speaking before the release of the new statistics, a Pentagon spokesman in Baghdad downplayed the increase of violence. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad that there had been a "very slight uptick" in the number of "murders and executions" in Baghdad.

"It's been very minimal,"Caldwell said, according to a transcript of the May 9 briefing. "I mean, it's not been anything significant. ..