The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the war started in March 2003 has exceeded the toll in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. media reported Tuesday.

A total of 2,973 people were killed in the attacks on Sept. 11,2001, and as of Tuesday, at least 2,977 American military personnel have been killed in Iraq, according to the Associated Press.

The death toll of the Sept. 11 attacks included the 2,749 killed at the World Trade Center in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, and 40 passengers aboard United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

The Bush administration launched the Iraq war mainly on the ground that the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein had had links with al Qaeda, the terror organization believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks, and had had weapons of mass destruction. None of which, however, has been justified.

The Pentagon put the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq at 2,961 and the number of the wounded at 22,401 as of Tuesday morning, and the deaths in Afghanistan at 353.

Editor: Donald