A candlelight vigil was held Sunday night at the Santa Monica beach near Los Angeles to mark the number of crosses set up there to honor the over 2,000 US soldiers killed in Iraq, organizers said.

"Although that number might seem arbitrary, because the 2,000th death is no more important than the first death, it does acknowledge that we are losing a lot of people in this war, and it doesn't seem to end," said Marcus Erickson of Veterans for Peace L.A.

According to him, a total of 2,016 crosses were placed in the sand near the Santa Monica Pier, representing 2,016 US soldiers dead in Iraq.

The Pentagon's official death count of American service personnel killed in Iraq reached 2,000 last week.

Guests invited for the memorial service included local representatives of groups like Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families for Peace, who have family members dead in wars.

Flag draped coffins were set up beside a 20-foot-long board with the names of dead servicemen and women in Iraq on it.

Erickson said those who died in Afghanistan were also listed on the board, although they were not represented by crosses.

He added that the memorial also honored Iraqi civilians who had died since America invaded their country.

The Pentagon on Sunday admitted in a report that the number of Iraqis killed or wounded has risen sharply in recent months, and the toll has reached 26,000 since the beginning of 2004, while a study published in the English medical journal the Lancet put the number at 100,000.

Erickson said the four goals of the memorial were to honor the fallen and wounded, be a place to grieve, encourage dialogue about America's wars, and talk about the needs of veterans returning from the Iraq war.

The former Marine said he was personally against the war because of what he learned while fighting the first Gulf War.

He said his platoon came across weapons used by Iraqis that had been made in America, and that in one Iraqi tank he found the same model of binoculars he was wearing around his own neck.

"War is business," Erickson said.

A three-day ceremony for the war dead, including a procession of coffins through the streets of Santa Monica to the beach, would be held next month on the occasion of the Veterans Day, which falls on Nov. 11.

According to Erickson, the crosses displayed at the Santa Monica beach, firstly set up in February 2004 with 540 crosses, will continue every weekend until the war in Iraq ends.

The display was named Arlington West Memorial because of its similarity to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.

Source: Xinhua