US Deaths in Afghanistan Hit Record

More troops die there than in Iraq for second straight month
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2008 7:54 AM CDT
US Deaths in Afghanistan Hit Record
An Afghan man pushes his bicycle in the western part of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, July 1, 2008.    (AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy)

More troops from the United States and coalition countries died in Afghanistan last month than at any other time since the 2001 invasion. For the second month in a row, deaths among American-led forces were higher in Afghanistan, where 46 servicemen died, than in Iraq, where 31 were killed. The greater death toll in Afghanistan comes despite a significantly increased NATO military presence there, reports the New York Times.

A new Pentagon report pessimistically claimed that the once-ragtag opposition to coalition forces has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency," one that the Afghan government can do little to suppress. About 32,000 American troops operate alongside 38,000 foreign servicemen in Afghanistan, but even that might not be enough: the Pentagon is considering a further deployment in what the senior commander there called an "under-resourced war." (More Afghanistan stories.)

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