BAGHDAD, September 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Although the U.S. Army argued Sunday, September 14, that only 667 American troops have been wounded in Iraq, a leading British newspaper stressed that as many as 6,000 U.S. servicemen have been evacuated for medical reasons since the beginning of the war on March 20.

Citing new figures it has obtained, The Observer said that of the 6,000, more than 1,500 American soldiers have been wounded, many seriously.

"The figures will shock many Americans, who believe that casualties in the war in Iraq have been relatively light," said the paper, highlighting "slipping" popular support for U.S. President George Bush’s policy in Iraq.

It stressed that wounded military service return home with little publicity, adding that giant "C-17 transport jets on medical evacuation missions land at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, every night.

"Battlefield casualties are first treated at Army field hospitals in Iraq then sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where they are stabilized.

"Andrews is the first stop back home. As the planes taxi to a halt, gangplanks are lowered and the wounded are carried or walk out.

"A fleet of ambulances and buses meet the C-17s most nights to take off the most seriously wounded."

According to The Observer, wounding American soldiers who need urgent operations and amputations "are ferried to America's two best military hospitals, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, near Washington, and the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda."

"The less badly wounded stay overnight at the air base, where an indoor tennis club and a community center have been turned into a medical staging facility."

The British daily underlined that a local volunteer group, called America's Heroes of Freedom, has set up on the base to cater for the wounded servicemen.

'This is our way of saying, "We have not forgotten you,"' it quoted the group founder Susan Brewer as saying.

The U.S. army announced, for its part, that 75 soldiers have been killed in Iraqi resistance operations since Bush declared an end to major combat operations in May.

Another 138 were killed during the invasion of Iraq, which began March 20 and officially ended with Bush's triumphant May 1 speech on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Since then, the U.S. Army has borne the brunt of the attacks with 71 killed by forces opposed to the U.S.-led occupation. Another two marines, one navy and one air force personnel have also died in action.

A further 50 British troops died in the invasion and the aftermath of the post-war period where the occupation forces have faced almost daily attacks.

According to The Observer, the mounting U.S. causalities "will also increase pressure on Bush to share the burden of occupying Iraq with more nations."

Concluding talks in Geneva with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the five permanent members of the Security Council remained divided on the future of Iraq, agreeing on the need to transfer power to the Iraqis but failing to spell out how or when.

"We all share the aspiration to transfer power to the Iraqi people as soon as possible," Annan told a press conference after the meeting.

According to the British paper, the American military police only announces that "a soldier has been wounded only if they were involved in an incident that involved a death.

"Critics of the policy say it hides the true extent of the casualties. The new figures reveal that 1,178 American soldiers have been wounded in combat operations since the war began on 20 March."

It reported that "many of the American casualties evacuated from Iraq are seriously injured."

The Observer also cited concerns that "many men serving in Iraq will suffer psychological trauma.

"Experts at the National Army Museum in London said studies of soldiers in the First and Second World Wars showed that it was prolonged exposure to combat environments that was most damaging.

"Some American units, such as the Fourth Infantry Division, have been involved in frontline operations for more than six months.

The British daily quoted Andrew Robertshaw, an expert at the museum, as saying wars claimed casualties after they were over.

"Soldiers were dying from injuries sustained during World War I well into the 1920s," he said.

The Observer noted that British soldiers in the occupied Arab country were rotated more frequently than their American counterparts.