Of those 73 were killed either in "friendly fire" incidents or in fighting with the Iraqi forces of President Saddam Hussein, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Among them were two soldiers killed in an Iraqi rocket attack earlier on a US army position south of Baghdad. Fifteen other soldiers were wounded in that attack.

Fourteen others were killed in accidents, and two were killed in a grenade attack by a renegade US soldier at a camp in Kuwait.

In addition, seven US troops are being held as prisoners of war and eight others are reported missing in action.

The US casualties "remind us of the heavy price we often pay for freedom," said General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military's joint chiefs of staff, earlier in the day.

Myers and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday visited US wounded at an army hospital and a navy hospital in the Washington area.

SPACE.WIRE