NATO deaths in Afghanistan pass 100 for 2012

AFGHANISTAN: The number of NATO troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year has risen from 100, according to an AFP count Wednesday based on the independent website icasualties.org.

The total icasualties for 2012 stood at 98, but the command of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul over the past two days announced four deaths, bringing the total to over 100.

The latest fatalities related to the field includes a service member killed by an improvised explosive device in the south, one by a similar explosion in the east and the other by an insurgent attack once again in the east. The nationalities of the dead were not identified, in accordance with ISAF policy.

International, the joint command of ISAF refused to confirm the total. "The longstanding policy of ISAF is to confirm a number of victims consolidated over a period of time," said a spokesman.The Islamist Taliban has been fighting an insurgency against the government of President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies since it was ousted in a US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The war has cost hundreds of millions of dollars West and the lives of nearly 3,000 so far. The United States has suffered the most deaths in 1924, according to icasualties, with Britain in the next 407. The mortality rate for 2012 is slightly slower than last year, when 109 soldiers were killed in late March, again according to icasualties.org.

ISAF currently has about 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, but the responsibility for security throughout the country is due to be handed over to Afghan authorities and the troops of most foreign retirees in late 2014. AFP