NEW YORK: The number of US soldiers who have died in the US ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan and Iraq has reached 5,385 while US casualities in Afghanistan alone hit 1,000, according to an independent website, a grim milestone in the conflict launched more than eight years ago.

The icasualties.org website, which tracks military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, said 54 US soldiers have died in the war so far this year, compared with a toll of 316 last year — the worst since the US-led invasion of 2001.

The top-ranking US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, warned of more casualties as US-led forces press an offensive in Marjah, a key Taliban stronghold, where foreign troops have faced strong militant resistance.

“We must steel ourselves, no matter how successful we are on any given day, for harder days yet to come,” he told reporters on Monday. The volatile southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand — where US, Nato and Afghan forces now are battling the Taliban in Marjah — account for the highest number of US and coalition casualties.

The Defence Department announced the latest American service member killed in the war as Corporal Gregory Stultz, 22, who died on February 19 from small arms fire in Helmand province.

After the attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington, the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the hardline Taliban regime sheltering the al-Qaeda network.