Twenty-eight US servicemen have died since the start of the war in Iraq last week, said Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jim Casella.

A FoxNews.com

report quoted him as saying that 22 of them suffered "hostile deaths" while four were killed in accidents and two in a grenade attack by a soldier against his comrades at a base in Kuwait.

Casella said seven soldiers are considered prisoners of war. Two were pilots of an Apache helicopter that was shot down while five others were snatched from a logistics unit.

Another 17 soldiers - eight marines and nine infantrymen - were listed as Dustwun (duty status whereabouts unknown).

This could mean that the soldiers were either missing in action or killed, said the spokesperson without elaborating.

Nothing but victory

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed hope that anti-Saddam Hussein citizens in Baghdad would rise up against the government before American troops have to invade the city of five million.

He also stressed that coalition forces would accept nothing short of a total victory in Iraq.

"There isn't going to be a cease-fire," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations defence subcommittee yesterday.

"It will end at the point where that regime does not exist and a new regime is ready to go in its place," he said later.

When Senator Pete Domenici asked what American ground troops would do o­nce they reached Baghdad, Rumsfeld answered by alluding to what is happening in Basra, where British forces have laid siege, hoping for a successful uprising by the Shiite population there..

The defense secretary noted that both Basra and Baghdad have large Shiite populations. "And they are not terribly favorable to the regime."

"They've been repressed, and they are in the present time in Basra assisting us," he said, adding that roughly half the Baghdad population was made up of Shiite Muslims.

"The regime has tended to be fearful of them and repress them," he said.

Final phase

Rumsfeld said he expected Saddam's loyalists to shoot any Iraqi soldier in Baghdad who attempts to surrender or assist coalition forces.

"We will go through a period where we'll have to deal with that problem," he said.

He did not say how long war commander General Tommy Franks would wait before launching the final phase of the attack o­n Baghdad.

However, he made it clear that Franks has a plan for fighting the 30,000 or so Republican Guard troops north, south and east of Baghdad.

"I think it's o­nly reasonable to expect that it will require the coalition forces moving through some Republican Guard units and destroying them or capturing them before you'll see the crumbling of the regime," he said.

The defense secretary said if the war reaches that stage, the large Shiite population in Baghdad might feel emboldened to revolt, avoiding the need for an invasion that could result in heavy losses.