US death toll in Iraq reaches 3,000

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
American deaths in the Iraq war reached the sobering milestone of 3,000 on Sunday even as the Bush administration sought to overhaul its strategy for an unpopular conflict that shows little sign of abating. The latest death came during one of the most violent periods during which the Pentagon says hate and revenge killings between Iraq's sects are now a bigger security problem than ever. The death of a Texas soldier, announced Sunday by the Pentagon, raised the number of US military deaths in Iraq to at least 3,000, according to an Associated Press count, since the war began in March 2003. President George W. Bush is struggling to salvage a military campaign that, more than three-and-a-half years after US forces overran the country, has scant support from the American public. In large part because of that discontent, voters gave Democrats control of the new Congress that convenes this week. Democrats have pledged to focus on the war and Bush's conduct of it.