WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (AFP) - The death toll for US soldiers in Iraq hit the 1,000 mark Tuesday, CNN television reported, but US leaders insisted the fight would go on in the strife-torn country.
The official Defence Department toll was at 990 dead since the US-led invasion on March 20, 2003. The Pentagon always waits until families are told before confirming deaths.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier that the 1,000 death toll would soon be passed. But he insisted that Iraq was better off than before the US-led invasion in March 2003.
"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 and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said insurgent attacks on US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan were likely to intensify as elections in the two countries 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," Rumsfeld said.
"And for that reason the civilized world has to stay on the offensive. And that`s exactly what the coalition is doing," he said.
There was fierce fighting Tuesday in Iraq 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.