According to a military official in the Pentagon, the official number of U.S. military killed in Iraq for October now stands at 99 -- that is 94 hostile and 5 non-hostile deaths.

The casualty count for the month of October 2006 has now surpassed every month since Jan. 2005, when 107 members of the U.S. military were killed. For perspective, in Oct. 2005 the number of casualties jumped to 96, from 49 in Sept. 2005.

The following statistics are from the Department of Defense:

Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S. casualty status
Total Deaths:              2,808
Total Hostile Deaths:      2,254
Total Non-hostile deaths:    554
Total wounded:            21,266
(statistics current as of 13:00 ET, Oct. 27)