As of Wednesday, at least 4148 members of the US military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3371 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one fewer than the Defense Departments tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 am Eastern.
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From Robert Burns at the Associated Press 08/28/2008
The United States is handing over responsibility for security in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar to Iraq within a few days. Anbar would be the 10th of 18 provinces to be returned to Iraqi government control.
There are now about 146,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures.
"There aren't a whole heck of a lot of bad guys there [Anbar province] left to fight," General James Conway, the top Marine Corps general, said Wednesday.
The US military is stretched so thin by the two wars that it cannot send significant additional numbers of combat forces to Afghanistan until the numbers in Iraq have been reduced. Conways likes the idea of sending more Marines to Afghanistan, but only if they thin out in Iraq.
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