by TChris

Military families walked to the Dover Air Force Base Sunday -- the site of the military's largest mortuary -- in the opening leg of a protest march that concludes Monday morning with a six mile hike from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the White House.

They walked Sunday to mourn those who have died since the beginning of the war in Iraq, to call for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and to protest the Pentagon policy that keeps families and the media from attending the return of remains at Dover's mortuary.

Recent media coverage of violence in Iraq has focused on attacks against Iraqi citizens who further the interests of the United States, but attacks upon American soldiers continue, too often with tragic success.

One American soldier was killed early Sunday when his convoy west of Baghdad was blasted by a roadside explosive. Three soldiers died Saturday when their patrol in southeast Baghdad also fell victim to a homemade bomb.

Those deaths, announced by a military spokesman on Sunday, followed an attack on Saturday with an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire in Tikrit that left two soldiers dead.