The number of US troops killed in Afghanistan has roughly doubled in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year as Washington has added tens of thousands of additional soldiers to reverse the Taliban’s momentum.
A dramatic spike in the number of wounded has accompanied those deaths, 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 this month.
US 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,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing last month.
In total, 57 US troops were killed here during the first two months of this year compared with 28 in January and February of last year, an increase of more than 100 percent, Pentagon figures compiled by reporters show. At least 20 American service members have been killed so far this month, an average of about 0.8 per day, compared to 13, or 0.4 per day, a year ago.
Britain has lost at least 33 troops since Jan. 1, compared with 15 for the same period last year.
The steady rise in combat deaths has generated less public reaction in the US than the spike in casualties last summer and fall, which undermined public support in the US for the mission. Fighting traditionally tapers off in Afghanistan during winter months, only to peak in the summer.
A rise in the number of wounded shows that the Taliban remain a formidable opponent.
The number of US troops wounded in Afghanistan and three smaller theaters where there isn’t much battlefield activity rose from 85 in the first two months of last year to 381 this year, an increase of almost 350 percent.
A total of 50 US troops were wounded last March, an average of 1.6 per day. In comparison, 44 were injured during just the first six days of this month, an average of 7.3 per day.
The increase in casualties was partly driven by the higher number of troops in Afghanistan this year. US troops rose from 32,000 at the beginning of last year to 68,000 at the end of the year, an increase of more than 110 percent.
Meanwhile, suspected U.S. missiles killed four people in Pakistan’s insurgent-dominated northwest on Saturday, officials said.
The strike is the latest in a campaign targeting Taliban-linked militants near the Afghan border.
Two intelligence officials said the missiles struck two houses on Saturday in the village of Hurmaz in North Waziristan. A military official also confirmed the information.
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