US death toll in Iraq reaches 2,500

Washington, June 16: Nearly 2,500 American soldiers have died since the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, the Pentagon has said.

The Pentagon gave no details on the nature of 2,500 deaths.

Nevertheless, the figures underline the continuing violence in Iraq even as President George W Bush returned quite confident after a surprise visit to Baghdad that the tide was beginning to turn.

In addition to this, more than 18,000 American military personnel have been wounded since the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Reacting to new death toll, White House spokesman Tony Snow said President Bush feels the pain of families who have lost loved ones. He said the President believes US soldiers, who died in Iraq, did not die in vain.

''Any President who goes through a time of war feels very deeply the responsibility for sending men and women into harm's way, feels very deeply the pain that the families feel. This President is no different,'' he said.

''It's always a sad benchmark, and one of the things the President has said is that these people will not die in vain,'' Mr Snow added. ''... You've got a government now that can help ensure that that is not the case.'' Some members of the Congress have been calling for a timetable for the eventual withdrawal of troops from Iraq, of which there are about 127,000.

According to some estimates, about 4,800 Iraqi police and security forces have died during the war, and at least 30,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

Mr Bush has dismissed calls for a US withdrawal from Iraq as election-year politics and has refused to give a timetable to allow troops to come home.

UNI