US military deaths in Afghanistan hit 2000

1 Oct 2012, 7:36 am   -   Source: AAP
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The number of American military deaths in Afghanistan has hit 2000 as the US winds down the 11-year war.

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US military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2000, a cold reminder of the human cost of an 11-year-old conflict that garners little public interest at home as the United States prepares to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.

The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police against US and NATO troops, raising questions about whether allied countries will achieve their aim of helping the Afghan government and its forces stand on their own after most foreign troops depart in little more than two years.

A US official confirmed the latest death on Sunday, saying that the international service member killed in an apparent insider attack by Afghan forces in the east of the country late on Saturday was American.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nationality of those killed had not been formally released.

A civilian contractor with NATO and at least two Afghan soldiers also died in the attack, according to a coalition statement and Afghan provincial officials. The nationality of the civilian was not disclosed.

At least 1190 non-US coalition troops, including Australians, have also died in the Afghanistan war, according to iCasualties.org, an independent organisation.

Tracking civilian deaths is much more difficult.

According to the UN, 13,431 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict between 2007, when the UN began keeping statistics, and the end of August.

Going back to the US-led invasion in 2001, most estimates put the number of Afghan deaths in the war at more than 20,000.

The invasion targeted al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies after the September 11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3000 lives in the US.

Victory in Afghanistan seemed to come quickly. Kabul fell within weeks, and the hardline Taliban regime was toppled with few US casualties.

But the decision by then-president George W Bush's administration to shift towards war with Iraq left the Western powers without enough resources on the ground, so by 2006 the Taliban had regrouped into a serious military threat.

President Barack Obama deployed more troops to Afghanistan, where casualties increased sharply in recent years.

The US public grew weary of having its military in a perpetual state of conflict, especially after the beginning of the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq at the end of last year.

That war, which began with a US-led invasion in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein, has cost the lives of nearly 4500 US troops, more than twice as many as have died in Afghanistan so far.

"The tally is modest by the standards of war historically, but every fatality is a tragedy and 11 years is too long," said Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"All that is internalised, however, in an American public that has been watching this campaign for a long time.

"More newsworthy right now are the insider attacks and the sense of hopelessness they convey to many."

Attacks by Afghan soldiers or police - or insurgents disguised in their uniforms - have killed 52 American and other NATO troops so far this year.

The so-called insider attacks are considered one of the most serious threats to the US exit strategy.

In its latest incarnation, that strategy has focused on training Afghan forces to take over security nationwide, allowing most foreign troops to go home by the end of 2014.

Although Obama has pledged that most US combat troops will leave by the end of 2014, American, NATO and allied troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a rate of one a day.

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