Baghdad, Iraq – The U.S. military death toll in the Iraq war reached 2,000 with the announcements today of three more deaths.
Iraq’s constitution was adopted by a majority in a fair vote during the Oct. 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it, election officials said today.
A prominent Sunni politician called the balloting “a farce.” The Pentagon announced that Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died Saturday in San Antonio of injuries sustained Oct. 17.
Alexander was wounded Samarra, a town 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga.
Earlier today, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two unidentified Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in a village west of Baghdad. The deaths raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,000.
President Bush warned the nation to brace for an even higher casualty count as the mission has more work remaining to be successful.
“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,” the president 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.”
