December is first month without U.S. deaths in Iraq

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — December was the first month since Iraq war began in which there were no American combat deaths, a milestone hailed by military officials Friday as they inaugurated a new name for the U.S. force at the start of the year that will see the war wind down in earnest.

However, U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with a year ago.

The Multinational Force-Iraq will officially be called the United States Force-Iraq, in belated recognition of the fact that for some time there have been no other nations serving alongside U.S. troops in the nearly 7-year-old conflict.

British, Australian and Romanian soldiers pulled out in July, leaving Americans as the last surviving members of what former President George W. Bush once called “the coalition of the willing.” A small number of foreigners are serving with a NATO training mission, but they were not part of the multinational force.

The Iraqi government Friday released figures showing that 3,454 Iraqis died in violence in 2009, the lowest level since the war began in March 2003.

In Afghanistan, a tally by the Associated Press shows 304 American service members had died as of Dec. 30, up from 151 in 2008. The count does not include eight U.S. civilians killed by a bomber in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Also, the annual death toll of international troops, including U.S. forces, surpassed 500 for the first time in the war. The total this year was 502 compared with 286 in 2008, according to the AP count.

U.S. military officials acknowledge that the insurgency in Afghanistan has the momentum and that more troops on the battlefield means the death toll is likely to remain high in the near term. Another 30,000 reinforcements are due in coming months.

Over the past eight years, at least 933 U.S. service members have died in the military campaign, according to U.S. Defense Department figures that include deaths in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and support operations elsewhere.

Afghan civilian deaths are more difficult to track, but according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, 2,021 were killed in the first 10 months of the year, nearly 1,400 of them by insurgents and 465 by U.S. and other pro- government forces.