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October 25, 2005
U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2, 000 in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:45 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military death toll in the Iraq war reached 2,000 with the announcements Tuesday of three more deaths.

The Pentagon announced that Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died Saturday in San Antonio of injuries sustained Oct. 17.

Alexander was wounded in Samarra, a town 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two unidentified Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in a village west of Baghdad. The deaths raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities to 2,000 in the Iraq war, which began in March 2003.

President Bush warned the nation to brace for an even higher casualty count as the mission has more work remaining to be successful.

''The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced, unconstrained by any notion of common humanity and by the rules of warfare,'' the president said in a speech before the Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' luncheon in Washington. ''No one should underestimate the difficulties ahead.''

The U.S. military said the two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in fighting with insurgents on Friday near the village of Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad. The military said two other U.S. service members -- a Marine and a sailor -- were killed in that attack. Their deaths were announced Saturday, although the military said Tuesday its earlier report had erroneously said the sailor was a Marine.

The Iraqi death toll is unknown, but estimates range much higher.

Iraq Body Count, a British research group that compiles figures from reports by major news agencies and British and U.S. newspapers, has said that as many as 30,051 Iraqis have been killed since the war began. Other estimates range as high as 100,000.

U.S. and coalition authorities say they have not kept a count of such deaths, and Iraqi government accounting has proven to be haphazard.

Click here for Paul Fusco's moving photo essay [Daily Kos].