US military death toll in Iraq reaches 2,000

The US military death toll in Iraq passed 2,000 with the announcement on Tuesday that a soldier had died in a Texas hospital of wounds from a bomb.

The unwelcome milestone was expected to spur new calls for US President George W. Bush to outline an exit strategy for the Iraqi conflict.

President Bush said in a speech, "We've lost some of our nation's finest men and women in the war on terror. A time of war is a time for sacrifice."

The Pentagon said Staff Sergeant George Alexander, 34, had died on Saturday of injuries sustained eight days ago when a roadside bomb set by insurgents blew up near his vehicle in the town of Samarra.

Earlier, the U.S. military had announced the deaths of two Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in Baghdad.

Bush said the war would require more sacrifice and rejected calls for a US pullout from Iraq.

"Each loss of life is heartbreaking, and the best way to honour the sacrifice of our fallen troops is to complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom," he said in a speech before the latest death was announced.

"The terrorists are as brutal an enemy as we have ever faced, unconstrained by any notion of common humanity and by the rules of warfare," Bush said in a speech before the Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' luncheon, held at Bolling Air Force Base. "No one should underestimate the difficulties ahead."

Outside the White House, meanwhile, peace activist Cindy Sheehan - whose 24-year old son, Casey, died in Iraq last year - said she and others plan to "die symbolically" each night over the next four days to protest US involvement in Iraq.

In the Iraq war, which began in March 2003, more than 15,000 US troops also have been wounded in action.

Casualties among Iraqis have been far higher, first in the invasion and then the insurgency.

US casualties reach sobering milepost

American troops killed in recent wars