KABUL (AP) - The number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first three months of 2010 compared to the same period last year as Washington has added tens of thousands of additional soldiers to reverse the Taliban's momentum.
Those deaths have been accompanied by a dramatic spike in the number of wounded, with injuries more than tripling in the first two months of the year and trending in the same direction based on the latest available data for March.
U.S. officials have warned that casualties are likely to rise even further as the Pentagon completes its deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and sets its sights on the Taliban's home base of Kandahar province, where a major operation is expected in the coming months.
"We must steel ourselves, no matter how successful we are on any given day, for harder days yet to come," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing last month.
In total, 57 U.S. troops were killed here during the first two months of 2010 compared with 28 in January and February of last year, an increase of more than 100 percent, according to Pentagon figures compiled by The Associated Press. At least 20 American service members have been killed so far in March, an average of about 0.8 per day, compared to 13, or 0.4 per day, a year ago.
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7 comments:
Well when we tell them where we are heading and when we are going to strike it is no wonder.
"set its sights on the Taliban's home base of Kandahar province, where a major operation is expected in the coming months"
Thanks American press. NOT
I wonder how many American soldiers really died during the month?
I wish our government and its media would tell us a little truth every now and then.
This should make Obama happy we all know he hates our troops !
If George W were still president we would be getting a daily head count. It's pathetic how the press protects Obama. If Obama had sent the 80,000 troops the generals wanted we would be in much better shape today.
10:49
I must disagree! As I recall, Dubya' ordered the media NOT TO SHOW the dead soldiers' coffins nor any funerals.
Dubya's regime did not want us to think about the sacrifices being made on the battlefield because it would reflect negatively on our young people's willingness to join the military.
If our Nation understood the redicuality of these wars of aggression, then, the working class people would STOP volunteering - and the wars would end.
Our elected officials are acting in criminal fashion and lying to we the American people.
Obama was just in the mid-east and is going to increase the troops and keep this "war" going until he rids the world of Taliban and those responsible for 9/11. Get a Fri--ing life. They will still be fighting when Obama has gone to his 17 or whatever virgins. This is not a war that we can win in my humble opinion. Hope when his daughters reach the age, they reinstitute the draft and they get drafted and sent over there jackkchar@aol.com
you guys are so full of crap. In your eyes, Obama can do no right. Obama beefed up the troop numbers and as expected, the fighting has increased. Seems to me that common sense would allow you guys to realize that troop deaths would increase. Sheesh.
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