Accident brings US death toll in Iraq past the 2,000 mark

THE American death toll reached 2,001 yesterday with the announcement that a soldier died in an accident on Tuesday.

Three mostly Sunni Arab parties said they have formed a coalition to compete in upcoming parliamentary elections as the minority moves to consolidate its power in the political arena.

The soldier, whose identity was withheld pending notification of relatives, died in a vehicle accident on Tuesday evening near Camp Bucca, a US detention centre in southern Iraq, the military said.

The statement raised by one the number of US service members killed in the war a day after the sombre milestone of 2,000 was reached.

A roadside bomb also destroyed a Humvee in a US convoy yesterday, but no American casualties were reported in the attack.

Elsewhere, at least 10 Iraqis were killed in attacks and an Internet statement claimed that the country’s most feared terror group has abducted two Moroccan embassy employees.

The US Senate on Tuesday observed a moment of silence in honour of the fallen Americans.

“We owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their courage, for their valour, for their strength, for their commitment to our country,” said Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist.

The milestone came amid growing doubts among the US public about the Iraq conflict.

In Iraq, many people heard of the 2,000 figure on Arab satellite TV channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.

Some Iraqis complained that the attention was misguided because far more Iraqis have died in the conflict than Americans. No one knows an exact number of Iraqi deaths, but there is some consensus - including from a US military spokesman and outside experts - that an independent count of roughly 30,000 is a relatively credible tally of Iraqi civilian deaths.

An Associated Press count of war-related Iraqi deaths from the time Iraq’s elected government took office on April 28 through Tuesday found at least 3,870 Iraqi deaths in that period alone.

“I hope the number of Americans who die goes even higher,” said Omar Ahmed, 36, the Sunni Arab owner of an electricity shop in Dora, one of the most violent parts of Baghdad.

Nearby, Ali al-Obeidi, a 28-year-old Sunni Arab, said he hoped the US losses would prompt the United States to leave Iraq.

Such feelings are not shared by many of Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.

“Remnants of Saddam’s regime are co-operating with al-Qaida in Iraq. And this, the killing of the Americans, will affect the stability and rebuilding of Iraq,” said Hamid al-Sumaysim, 54, a Shi’ite shop owner in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf. “The Americans liberated us and they will help us to rebuild our country.”