US forced onto the defensive over mounting toll in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US administration stepped up efforts to defend its "noble cause" in Iraq as the death toll among US troops since the end of major combat overtook the number killed during the invasion.

President George W. Bush was to give a major speech in the Missouri city of St. Louis on Tuesday to answer critics who have called for more troops to be sent to the troubled country.

But the administration's efforts were partly overshadowed by the news that more US forces have lost their lives in Iraq since Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1 than in the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

According to the Defense Department's latest official tally, 277 US troops have now been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom -- 139 since Bush's triumphant May 1 speech on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Unofficial tolls indicate that more than 140 have been killed in the past four months, and the symbolically important figures have been widely reported by the US media.

more

Don