US military deaths in Iraq at 2,500 - Yahoo! News

US military deaths in Iraq at 2,500 - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. military deaths in
Iraq has reached 2,500, the
Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S. and allied forces locked in a struggle with a resilient insurgency.
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In addition, the Pentagon said 18,490 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war, which began in March 2003 with a U.S.-led invasion to topple President
Saddam Hussein. Of the 2,500 deaths, the Pentagon said, 1,972 have come in combat and 528 in noncombat circumstances such as vehicle accidents or suicides.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed with some estimates of the toll reaching close to 40,000. Sectarian violence surged after February's bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, with hundreds of people killed every month in Baghdad alone."