WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military discharged a total of 726 service members last year for being gay, a 10 percent increase on 2004, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

    The Army, the largest branch of the U.S. military, discharged 386 gay personnel, followed by the Navy with 177, the Air Force with 88 and the Marines, the smallest force, with 75, the newspaper quoted figures released by the gay rights group, the Service members Legal Defense Network, as saying.

    A sharp increase occurred at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where in 1999 a soldier was bludgeoned to death in his barracks by fellow soldiers who thought he was homosexual. In 2004, 19 service members from the base were discharged and the number climbed to 49in 2005.

    The overall number of service members who were dismissed because they were found to be gay or because they disclosed their sexuality fell in the period from 2002 to 2004.

    The total of such discharges in 2004 was 653, compared with 770in 2003, 885 in 2002 and 1,227 in 2001.

    Under a policy introduced by the Clinton administration known as "don't ask, don't tell," the military cannot inquire into service members' sex lives unless there is evidence of homosexual conduct. Those who volunteer the information have to be discharged. More than 11,000 members have been discharged for that reason, said the legal group.

    More service members have been discharged for drug offenses, pregnancy and weight problems than for being gay, the report cited a review by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, as saying. Enditem