June 15, 2006 - 12:56 PM

Pentagon says U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 2,500

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S. and allied foreign forces locked in a struggle with a resilient insurgency.

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.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

"It's important to remember that there is a mission, and there is a greater good which sometimes necessitates tremendous sacrifice," said Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, deputy director for regional operations for the military's Joint Staff who formerly commanded U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

"Rather than focus on an aggregate number, I think it's more important for us to remember that there are individuals in that aggregate number ... to whom we should be very, very grateful, and to their families," Ham said.

On an average day in the war, about two U.S. troops are killed. In the average month, about 64 U.S. troops are killed.

Defence analysts noted that U.S. deaths in Iraq, while significant, are far fewer than in other protracted U.S. wars since World War Two. In the Vietnam War, 58,000 U.S. troops died. In the Korean War, 54,000 died.

Roadside bombs, known by the military as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are the biggest cause of U.S. casualties. Ham said despite good progress in detecting roadside bombs and the insurgents responsible for making and planting them, the overall numbers of these attacks have increased over the past several months.

Car bombs also remain a deadly threat, Ham said.

'ADAPTIVE AND RESILIENT'

The steadily mounting U.S. death toll reflects an insurgency that has not buckled despite facing off against a military super power, analysts said.

"They've been very adaptive and resilient," said defence analyst Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute think tank. "That's one of the chief problems that an intervening force faces in any counterinsurgency war. You're fighting on the adversary's home turf and essentially all the enemy has to do is to out-wait the intervening power."

Military medical experts say the U.S. death toll would be even higher if not for advances in medical care and body armour that keep alive badly wounded troops who would have died in previous wars.

They point to: advances in body armour, with torso armour better protecting the chest and abdomen, heart and lungs and helmets better protecting the brain; improved in-country surgical capabilities allowing patients to be stabilized and quickly flown out of Iraq; and better prepared battlefield medics.

The deadliest month of the war was November 2004, when 137 U.S. troops died in a month when U.S. forces conducted a fierce offensive in the city of Falluja in the western Anbar province to deny Sunni Muslim insurgents a safe haven.

U.S. fatalities had dropped in five straight months from last November through this March, as insurgents appeared to focus more of their violence on Iraqi civilians and American-trained Iraqi government security forces.

But the U.S. death tolls in April and May were above average, and the Pentagon has acknowledged a recent surge in insurgent violence.