Press Reports on U.S. Casualties in Iraq: About 17,000 Short, UPI Says

Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to the Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted. The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq.  The military has evacuated 16,765 individual service members from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries and ailments not directly related to combat, according to the U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for the medical evacuations. Most are from Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The Pentagon's public casualty reports, available at www.defenselink.mil, list only service members who died or were wounded in action.[more ]

• As of Thursday, Sept. 16, 1,027 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Defense Department [more ]