U.S. Military Death Toll In Afghanistan Hits 1,000

U.S. Marines watch a U.S. helicopter gunship after landing to join an American contingent in the southern Helmand Province in February.

The United States military is reported to have suffered its 1,000th death in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan.

AP said its count showed the 1,000th American soldier died today in a roadside bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.

The same agency said the death of the first U.S. soldier in Afghanistan occurred early in January in 2002, shortly after the United States launched military operations to oust Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers for harboring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was blamed for orchestrating the September 2001, terrorist hijacking attacks in America.

compiled from agency reports