Bush warns of more casualties as US death toll in Iraq hits 2,000

THE US military death toll in the 2 1/2 year Iraq war reached the milestone of 2,000 last night with the announcement by the Pentagon of a US soldier who died at a hospital in Texas over the weekend.

The Pentagon said Staff Sgt George Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died at Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio, Texas, last Saturday of injuries sustained on October 17 in Samarra, Iraq, when a roadside bomb planted by insurgents detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

In the Iraq war, which began in March 2003, more than 15,000 US troops also have been wounded in action. The Iraqi death toll is unknown, but estimates range much higher.