Posted on 12/31/2009 9:43:57 AM PST by Steelfish
Number of U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan Doubles In 2009
The year's tally was 319, compared with 155 in 2008, due mostly to the crude but ever larger and deadlier roadside bombs built by the Taliban. Related
By Laura King
December 31, 2009
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - American military fatalities in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with the previous year, and U.S. officials and analysts acknowledge that the new year is likely to prove even more lethal.
The planned U.S. troop buildup, coupled with ever-deadlier tactics adopted by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, is expected to result in at least a temporary spike in deaths and injuries among the nearly 70,000 American troops serving here and the additional 30,000 due to arrive in 2010.
Heading into a ninth year of warfare in Afghanistan, military casualties settled into near-lock step with the passing of each day -- a firefight here, a suicide bombing there. The most violent parts of the country -- the south, the east -- remained so, but some previously quiet corners also descended into carnage.
In 2008, 155 U.S. service members died in Afghanistan. As 2009 drew to a close, the year's tally stood at 319, according to the independent website icasualties.org, which tracks troop fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq.
That tally did not include eight American civilians, seven of them CIA personnel, who were killed in an audacious insurgent strike Wednesday on their base in eastern Afghanistan. It was the CIA's biggest one-day loss since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
My nephew was one of them. Last month. IED.
The list, ping
My condolences to you and your/his family.
OMG! Sorry to hear about this. May he rest in peace.
What did they think was going to happen when the rules of engagement changed to run if you are shot at, but don’t return fire if even a single civilian casualty might happen.
One third of our total Afghanistan deaths from 2001-2009 occurred this year.
We have a Commander in Chief who ignored Afghanistan for almost an entire year.
How is that not Dereliction of Duty ?
He was a good kid who loved his job and his fellow soldiers. We never thought it could happen to him.
I’m so sorry for your loss. Losing our best men and women is something that has broken my heart every day since this war began. God bless your family.
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