The number of confirmed or probable suicides in the US Marines reached 32 this year, more than at any time since the Corps started monitoring such deaths, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.

San Diego Union-Tribune, a newspaper published in a coastal city near one of the largest Marine bases in the US, said the previous record was 28 suicides in 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan.

At least six of the 32 suicides this year involved Marines in Camp Pendleton, a Marine base near San Diego, California. Of them, three killed themselves in Kuwait or Iraq and three in San Diego, Thomas Gaskin, a Navy commander told the newspaper.

Historically, the Marine Corps leads all US services in the rate of suicides, averaging nearly 25 a year since 1999. The Marines are the smallest service, with 178,000 active-duty troops.

By comparison, the US Army has some 500,000 troops. It reported 54 suicides in 2002.

The newspaper said some counselors and Marine generals blamed the challenges of preparing for deployment to Iraq, the stress of combat and the difficulties of returning to postwar life as possible factors driving up suicide numbers.

The first San Diego-based Marine death when thousands were deployed earlier this year was ruled a suicide. Matthew G. Milczark, 18, shot himself inside a chapel March 8 in Kuwait as the Marines prepared to move into Iraq, according to Marine reports.

The newspaper said that top Marine generals have told the US Congress about their worries that long, continuous combat deployments could break the Corps' morale.