http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040109/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_rising_toll&cid=540&ncid=1480<snip>BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of American troops who have died in Iraq (news - web sites) since the war began last March is nearing 500, more than U.S. losses in many regional conflicts of the past several decades: the Gulf War (news - web sites), Lebanon, Somalia, Panama, Grenada, Kosovo and Afghanistan (news - web sites).
So far the Iraq conflict has cost the lives of 494 American service members, including nine who were killed Thursday in the crash of a Black Hawk medivac helicopter believed shot down near Fallujah. Most of the deaths — both combat and non-combat — have occurred since President Bush (news - web sites) declared an end to major fighting on May 1.
Already, the loss of American life in Iraq has surpassed the U.S. death toll of the first Gulf War of 1991, when about 315 Americans died in the operation to drive Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s forces from Kuwait. That figure includes combat and non-combat deaths suffered during the military buildup and the war itself.
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U.S. officials dismiss most of the attacks by Iraqi insurgents as militarily insignificant, and the Bush administration strongly defends the U.S. role in Iraq. Bush said during a visit to London in November that the failure to build democracy in Iraq "would throw its people back into misery and turn that country over to terrorists who wish to destroy us."