Coalition casualties in Afghanistan
Encyclopedia : C : CO : COA : Coalition casualties in Afghanistan
As of July 11, 2006, there have been 405 coalition deaths in Afghanistan and other theaters of war during Operation Enduring Freedom — 314 American, 18 German, 18 Spanish, 17 Canadian, 13 British, 7 French, 6 Italians, 4 Romanians, 3 Danish, 2 Swedish, 1 Australian, 1 Norwegian, and 1 Portuguese.
In addition to these deaths, 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan were killed in 2003 when their plane crashed in Turkey.
Of the American deaths, 161 died in hostile action and 153 died in non-hostile incidents. Of these, 256 died in and around Afghanistan and 57 died in other countries, mostly in accidents. A civilian DoD member was killed in action while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, and is included in the final death toll. However, the DoD's website does not say where he/she was killed. Three CIA operatives have also been killed in Afghanistan, two in an ambush and one in a notorious prison uprising in November 2001.
Of the International Security Assistance Force casualties, 39 died in hostile action while 51 died in accidents.
The number of American wounded in action was 815 as of July 11, 2006. The number of ISAF wounded is not definitively known, as no updates are provided by the ISAF.
Specific incidents
- On March 2, 2002, Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, of the Third Special Forces Group, was killed in an ambush along the road from Gardez to the Shahi Kot Valley.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- On March 4, 2002, seven American Special Forces soldiers were killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around 3 a.m. local time a MH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by an rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile (800 m) away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- On April 18, 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed (Sgt. Marc Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith) and eight wounded during a night-time live-fire training exercise near Kandahar. The Four were killed when an American F-16 fighter jet in the area, unaware of the exercise, noticed the ground fire and responded by dropping a bomb without determining who the combatants were. These were the first Canadian soldiers to be killed in combat since the Korean War. The pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Harry Schmidt, disobeyed an air controller's order to "standby" while information was verified. Schmidt was initially charged by the U.S. Air Force with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter and 8 counts of assault. The charges were dropped in June 2003 and in July 2004 he was found guilty of dereliction of duty.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- June 28, 2005 - 16 American soldiers from U.S. Special Operations Forces died when the MH-47 helicopter there were flying on was shot down by militants with a rocket propelled grenade in Asadabad, Afghanistan. The soldiers were en route to assist the SEALs involved in Operation Red Wing.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- August 21, 2005 - Four American soldiers were killed and one soldier wounded when the vehicle they were traveling in was blown up by a remote control device planted on a bridge.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
- April 22, 2006 - Four Canadian soldiers were killed when a road side bomb exploded next to their vehicle. Two of the soldiers were members of Canada's regular army and the other two were reservists (Bombardier Myles Mansell of the 5th British Columbia Field Regiment RCA, and Lt. William Turner of Land Force Western Area Headquarters).
- May 5th, 2006 - A convoy of Italian troops are targeted by a roadside bomb in Kabul. The explosion kills 3 Italian soldiers and leave 3 others wounded.
- May 5th, 2006 - A US helicopter crashes in Kunar province during an anti-Taleban operation. The crash kills all 10 US soldiers on board, but it’s crash was said to be non-hostile.
See also
- Taliban insurgency
- List of Coalition aircraft crashes in Afghanistan
- Civilian casualties of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
- Afghanistan friendly fire incident
External links
- [Defense Department Casualty Page]
- [Operation Enduring Freedom: Fatalities]
- [CNN.com] - Operation Enduring Freedom Casualties
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.