Iraq death toll for U.S. troops hits 3,000

CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war reached 3,000 Sunday with the death of a soldier at a military hospital in Crawford, Texas, CNN reported.

The soldier was identified as Sgt. Edward Shaffer, 23, of Mont Alto, Pa. He was wounded Nov. 13, 2006, by a roadside bomb in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, CNN said.

The White House announced that President George W. Bush, after receiving the Pentagon's report on the 3,000th death, vowed that American troops killed in Iraq did not die in vain.

Pentagon figures show that more than 22,000 others have been wounded in the conflict, which began in March 2003. The increasingly unpopular war has also claimed the lived of about 250 allied troops, most of them British.

Estimates of Iraqi deaths during the conflict range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the administration says troops must remain in Iraq to stabilize the country amid persistent insurgency and sectarian violence.