WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld noted Tuesday that the US death toll in Iraq will soon surpass 1,000, but insisted the country was better off than before the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Nevertheless, Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said insurgent attacks on US forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan were likely to intensify as elections approach.
"There are really no free passes in this struggle, this war. There are no free passes for countries. There are really no free passes for individuals," said Rumsfeld, who also remarked on the bloody hostage-taking at a Russian school.
"And for that reason the civilized world has to stay on the offensive. And that`s exactly what the coalition is doing," he said.
The Pentagon`s official toll as of 1500 GMT Tuesday morning stood at 990 dead since the US invasion of Iraq March 19, 2001. But those numbers lagged behind unofficial tolls that edged near the 1,000 mark.
"Taking the offense, however, of course, has its cost, just as staying on defense has its cost," Rumsfeld said.
"And soon the American forces are likely to suffer the 1,000th casualty at the hands of terrorists and extremists in Iraq. When combined with US losses in other theaters in the global war on terror, we have lost well more than 1,000 already," he said.
Rumsfeld`s press conference, his first at the Pentagon since mid-July, came amid fierce fighting in Baghdad between US forces and followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr that left three US troops dead, and US air strikes on the insurgent stronghold at Fallujah.
Seven marines were killed in a suicide car bombing Monday outside Fallujah.