WASHINGTON, March 8: The US death toll in Iraq is now approaching 4,000 while thousands more have been wounded, according to the statistics released by the US Defence Department.

Till March 7, 2008, at least 3,974 US troops had been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

At least 3,237 of them died as a result of hostile action.

The US death toll in Iraq is likely to cross 4,000 before the American presidential election in November this year. And if it does, it may have a negative impact on the ruling Republican Party already blamed for leading America to a war it cannot win.

On the other front, at least 415 US soldiers have so far been killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Of those, 283 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defence Department reports 63 more members of the US military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Of those, two were the result of hostile action.

The US military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.

Four CIA officer and nine military civilians have also been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.