Pentagon says US military deaths in Iraq at 2,500

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) The number of US military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon today said more than three years into a conflict that finds US and allied 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 US-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.

''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 US 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.

There are currently 127,000 US troops in Iraq.

In addition to US deaths, 113 British troops have been killed, along with an equal number of other foreign troops.

President George W Bush's central justification for the war was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found.

ADAPTIVE, RESILIENT INSURGENCY On an average day in the war, about two US troops are killed. The average monthly death toll is 64.

Defense analysts noted that US deaths in Iraq, while significant, are far fewer than in the other protracted US wars since World War Two -- the Vietnam War where 58,000 US troops died, or the Korean War where 54,000 died.

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

The steadily mounting US toll reflects an insurgency that has not buckled despite facing a military superpower.

''They've been very adaptive and resilient,'' said 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 US toll would be even higher if not for advances in medical care and body armor that often saves the lives of badly wounded troops who would have died in previous wars.

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

US fatalities had dropped in five straight months through this March, as insurgents appeared to focus more on Iraqi civilians and Iraqi government security forces. But the US toll in April and May was above average, and the Pentagon has acknowledged a recent surge in insurgent violence.

REUTERS SY BD2215