566 foreign troops killed in 2011

KABUL (PAN): NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) lost its 566 servicemembers in 2011, showing a 21 percent decline in the fatalities compared to 711 deaths in 2010.

According to the figures by a causality monitoring website www.iCasualties.org, most of the fallen soldiers were from the US and the UK. Among the dead were 417 Americans, 45 Britons and 104 from other nations.

On Aug. 6, 2011, 38 people, including 31 US Special Forces’ members, were killed when a helicopter crashed in the Tangi area of Syedabad district in central Maidan Wardak province.  The incident was the deadliest for the US forces in the decade-long war.

In late October, 17 international soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing on the Darul Aman road in Kabul.

Since the beginning of the war against insurgents in Afghanistan more than 10 years ago, a total of 2,847 foreign soldiers, including 1,863 US, 394 British and 590 from other countries have been killed, the website said.

At least 803 international soldiers, including US and British, were killed in southern Helmand province, the most dangerous region for foreign troops. In neighbouring Kandahar, about 428 foreign soldiers have been killed over the past 10 years, the statistics show.

Currently, more than 133,000 servicemembers from 50 countries, including nearly 100,000 US soldiers, are fighting the insurgent Taliban command in Afghanistan.

ISAF Media Operations Officer Brian Badura said it was ISAF’s policy not to disclose specific numbers of coalition casualties, but for more information about casualties, each respective nation should be contacted.

“We are not in a position to validate the data reported by iCasualties as
ISAF’s policy is not to discuss specific casualty numbers,” he said of the figures released by the website.

 “One significant reason for the reduction in casualties is the battlefield success shown by ISAF and Afghan National Security Forces in 2011 against the insurgents. Enemy-initiated attacks have shown notable year-over-year decreases for seven consecutive months through November 2011,” he said.

Coalition forces would continue to make every effort to keep the number of coalition and civilian casualties as low as possible, he added.

A former defence minister of Afghanistan, Shahnawaz Tani, said the Taliban were preparing to fight Afghan security personnel after 2014, when foreign troops would leave.

“In 2011, foreign troops decreased their military operations and stayed confined to their stations,” he said.

myn/ma

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