Reply #1: I've been relying on http://icasualties.org

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The defense department announces each death, with the soldier's name and where he or she was from, along with other information. I don't see how they could fail to report deaths. The soldier's family and friends would know or soon find out, and it would be noted that the government failed to announce the death.

They could delay announcements, or lie about the circumstances. And they could downplay non-fatal casualties, since they are not announcing the identity of each of those wounded, but I don't think they could long hide the number of fatalities.

Some of the confusion might be from the different casualty figures that are quoted. There is one number for total coalition force deaths (about 1,530, currently), another for the number of US troops killed (about 1,370), and a number for the number of US troops killed in action as opposed to "non-hostile" deaths (about 1,150).