WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq last month, the highest monthly number in nearly two years, as American soldiers were fighting in Baghdad trying to check a spiral of sectarian violence, figures released by the Defense Department showed.

    The number was the highest since the U.S. military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing Pentagon figures.

    It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

    The sharp increase in American wounded - with nearly 300 more in the first week of October - was a grim measure of the degree to which the U.S. military had been thrust into the lead of the effort to stave off full-scale civil war in Iraq, military officials and experts were quoted as saying.

    More than 20,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in combat in the Iraq war, and about half have returned to duty.

    While much media reporting has focused on the more than 2,700 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, military experts said the number of wounded was a more accurate gauge of the fierceness of fighting because advances in armor and medical care today allowed many service members to survive who would have perished in past wars, the report said.

    The ratio of wounded to killed among U.S. forces in Iraq is about 8 to 1, compared with 3 to 1 in Vietnam. Enditem

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