Troop vs. Trooper - Type B

Of the many things that have puzzled me over the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is the way that the media is reporting Troop casualties. Over and over again I have heard the media refer to a single person as a troop – at least I hope that is what I am hearing. For instance, here is a quote from a CNN article on the web last October: “That month, 20 U.S. troops died in or near the capital, up from 12 in July and 15 in June. The number rose again last month, to 29.” According to my research, a troop is somewhere between 70-250 soldiers. That would mean that that quote from CNN involved between 5,320 and 19,000 dead soldiers instead of 76. My understanding is that thus far we have only lost about 3,500 (I say only – it is still deplorable). This may just be semantics, but the consequences of these words have a very far reaching meaning when one is talking about the number of dead in a war. CNN is not the only one either; the Associated Press, and NPR have both referred to the soldiers this way. Am I the only one to which this seems strange?