March Was First Month With No U.S. Combat Fatalities Since 2002

U.S. Army Sgt Dawn Hawkins, foreground, listens to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speak to soldiers about the Army's future during a visit to Fort Eustis, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. Hagel is proposing to shrink t... U.S. Army Sgt Dawn Hawkins, foreground, listens to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speak to soldiers about the Army's future during a visit to Fort Eustis, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. Hagel is proposing to shrink the Army to its smallest size in three-quarters of a century, hoping to reshape the military after more than a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and roped in by fiscal constraints set by Congress. (AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, The' N. Pham) MAGS OUT MORE LESS
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This post has been updated.

There were no U.S. combat deaths in March for the first time since July 2002, the Huffington Post reported on Tuesday.

It was also just the third month since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 without a U.S. combat death in the country, according to Pentagon data reviewed by the Huffington Post.

President Obama noted the milestone during a Wednesday speech on the minimum wage in Michigan.

“Troops, they’ve been fighting two wars, are coming home. We just went through the first month since 2003 where no U.S. soldier was killed in either Afghanistan or Iraq,” he said.

Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, 2,312 American soldiers have died in action in Afghanistan, according to the Huffington Post. In the Iraq war, 4,489 service members died in combat.

In February, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the U.S. would plan for American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan if Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not sign a security agreement. Karzai has indicated that he is not willing to keep a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the Huffington Post reported the statistics on Monday. The Huffington Post article was published Tuesday.

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