U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ HIT 3,000 MARK

As 2006 came to an end, the steadily rising toll of U.S. troops killed in Iraq hit another grim milestone -- 3,000.

The latest marker came Sunday as President Bush prepared to lay out his proposals for changing U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush has been meeting with advisors at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, and White House officials have said he could announce his plans this week.

Bush appears to be leaning toward a troop increase. Some advisors believe more troops could allow U.S.-led forces to tamp down the sectarian war that the Pentagon has identified as the main source of instability in Iraq.

Others, including some ranking U.S. commanders and many members of Congress, believe that sending more U.S. troops to Iraq would only worsen the situation by reducing the pressure on Iraq’s warring parties to settle their differences.

Asked about the latest death toll, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush “grieves for each one” and “will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain.”

Since the summer, U.S. commanders have increased the number of troops in Baghdad in an effort to quell the civil war here with stepped-up patrols. That strategy has had little effect on the violence, and has increased the number of U.S. troops killed in the capital.

In that regard, the most recently announced deaths were typical of many in the last several months: The Pentagon said that Army Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas, had been killed Thursday by small-arms fire in Baghdad.

The U.S. military command here announced that another, still unidentified, soldier had died Saturday, also in the capital, when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol. The military typically delays announcements of deaths to allow relatives to be notified first.

Overall, the rate of military fatalities has remained steady for more than 2 1/2 years, since the insurgency against the U.S. occupation of Iraq began to gain strength in 2004. The U.S.-led invasion in the spring of 2003 took the lives of 140 American troops, then, after an initial lull, the 1,000th death was announced in September 2004 and the 2,000th in October 2005.

U.S. casualties continue to be eclipsed by the death toll among Iraqis. At least 5,900 Iraqi police officers and soldiers have died since 2003, according to the Iraq Index, a database maintained by Brookings Institution think tank. Estimates of civilian death tolls have varied widely, from tens of thousands to more than half a million.

The 3,000th U.S. military death comes in the wake of the execution of deposed President Saddam Hussein, an event that military leaders believe will lead to more attacks against U.S. troops, at least in the short term.

The U.S. military took no official notice of the 3,000 figure, and some commanders played down the number of fatalities. U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway said in an interview that, given the significance of Iraq and Afghanistan to U.S. national security, the death toll in those two countries was not excessive.

On average, slightly more than two U.S. troops die in Iraq a day, compared with 300 or more a day during World War II, he said.

But the intensity of the fighting and the sense that many American troops are caught in the crossfire of a civil war have helped undermine public support for the U.S. presence in Iraq. Sunday, two prominent Republican senators said in television interviews that they had reservations about sending more troops to Iraq.

“The administration needs to identify precisely where the battle lines are -- who is it we combat. I haven’t seen such lines,” said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sen. Arlen Specter, who just returned from a trip to the Middle East, said he, too, had not seen the administration lay out a compelling case for troop increases. Lugar spoke on “Fox News Sunday” and Specter on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a public letter last week that the fighting is more intense than the death toll implies.

New protective measures and advances in military medicine reduce the number of deaths, but not the difficulty of the war, he said, noting that the total number of U.S. casualties reached 25,000 in mid-December.

More than 24,800 additional troops sustained noncombat-related injuries -- illnesses, vehicle crashes and other accidents -- serious enough to require air transport.

And attacks against U.S. and Iraqi security forces are increasing. The military does not release specific numbers, but the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan government committee convened to find new approaches to the conflict, reported last month that the number of attacks averaged 180 a day in October, up from 70 a day in January.

Military commanders agree that the number of U.S. deaths would be far higher but for improved defenses. U.S. combat vehicles employ a variety of signal jammers to intercept remotely detonated roadside bombs, and American troops rarely leave their bases in anything less than an armored Humvee.

In the city of Baqubah in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, many U.S. troops are conducting operations in Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks.

Many U.S. troops have added more body armor, including bullet-resistant plates to protect their sides and high Kevlar collars for their necks.

But the steady rate of casualties is evidence that insurgents also adapt. In the northern city of Kirkuk, some U.S. military mess halls have posted boards showing the different types of wires that insurgents use to detonate bombs manually and avoid signal jammers.

“These guys are not dumb. They morph based on our operations,” said Col. Patrick T. Stackpole, an Army brigade commander in Kirkuk. “They’re constantly changing up their ability to get money, to get different types of weapons, their tactics with IEDs [improvised explosive devices], with small- arms fire. They adapt to any new technique.”

In Fallouja, snipers killed three Marines last week. Though not as prevalent as roadside bombings, sniper attacks have become a persistent problem for American troops. U.S. military officials say snipers sometimes hide in the trunks of cars and fire at Humvee gunners through peepholes.

By the fall, sniper attacks had become so frequent, U.S. military officials said, that U.S. Secret Service agents flew to Baghdad to help establish new countermeasures and training.

The weapon U.S. troops fear most is the shaped-charge bomb, which is fashioned to direct explosions in a deadly cone of metal and concussive force powerful enough to punch through a tank.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of allowing shaped-charge explosives to be exported across its border into Iraq.

Overall, both shaped and unshaped roadside bombs accounted for nearly half of the latest 1,000 military deaths, up from 38% previously.

The most dangerous part of Iraq for U.S. troops is still Al Anbar province in the western deserts, where more than 1,000 U.S. troops have died since 2003. Almost 800 troops have died in Baghdad. The third worst province is Salahuddin, where nearly 300 U.S. troops have died -- and where Hussein’s body was buried Sunday in the town of Al Auja, his birthplace.

At least 111 American troops were killed in December, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the battle for Fallouja in November 2004. Overall, at least 820 U.S. military personnel were killed in 2006.

Col. Larry Nicholson, commander of the 5th Marine Regiment in Al Anbar, has lectured troops about staying sharp as they near the end of their deployments. With several battalions set to return to bases in California, North Carolina and Okinawa, Japan, in the coming weeks, Nicholson reminded troops during a Christmas Eve tour of Marine outposts that the most dangerous times for military personnel were the first and last month of war-zone deployments.

“In the beginning, they’re not sure what they’re doing,” he told the troops. “In the end, they start being cocky. They start thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve done this a thousand times,’ and they start taking shortcuts.”

moore1@latimes.com

tony.perry@latimes.com

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Moore reported from Baghdad and Perry from Fallouja. Times staff writer Mohammed Rasheed in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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Fatalities by service

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Army: 1,546 | Marines: 756 | National Guard: 384 | Reserves: 226 | Navy: 50 | Air Force: 29 | Other: 9*

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*Includes Coast Guard, Department of Defense and identities pending.

Source: icasualties.org

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Counting war dead

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The Pentagon and outside groups each maintain counts of the number of American troops killed and wounded in Iraq.

One of the most widely cited sources, used by The Times and several other news organizations, is the Iraq Coalition

Casualty Count website,

icasualties.org. The website is maintained by Georgia resident Michael White.

The Associated Press also maintains a count of military deaths.

As of Sunday, both the icasualties and AP counts had reached 3,000.

The military’s own website, defenselink.mil, tends to lag behind the other counts. Although the U.S. military in Iraq announces fatalities as they are confirmed, the Pentagon does not record a death as official until 24 hours after notifying the next of kin. As of Sunday, the official military count stood at 2,986.